The Music Still Plays On
by panda367
Summary: Rose Weasley and Scorpius Malfoy form a strong friendship. Can they keep it a secret? Follow them through their years at Hogwarts, as their friendship turns into love. Post DH obviously. PLEASE READ AND REVIEW! Chapter 12 up 4.21.08!
1. I'll be gracious and aloof

A/N: This idea just...came to me, somehow. The title will be based on the song from the musical A New Brain, "The Music Still Plays On", not because I think that song is a Rose/Scorpius song, but because some of the lyrics just beg to be used in a fanfic of any kind. It's told from Rose's POV. This is also my first foray into a semi-serious HP fic. Gasp! Shock! Please read and review!

The Music Still Plays On

Part 1: Love is Stupid (First Year)

Chapter 1: I'll be gracious and aloof

Finally, this was it. The day that I would finally join my cousins in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I had been waiting for this day for my whole life, eagerly wanting to learn all of the secrets of magic, just as my parents had done. And now that day was finally here. My bags were at my side as I looked around Platform 9 3/4 at my fellow students. One of them in particular, a tall boy with blonde hair, attracted me immediately with his fiery gaze. My father caught me looking at him and pulled me away, telling me that the boy was Scorpius Malfoy, and that I should beat him at every test and not get well acquainted with him. I was confused. Why should I be kept away from this boy? I saw nothing wrong with him- in fact, whenever I looked at him, my heart seemed to skip a beat. I kept these feelings to myself, however, not wanting to anger my parents on my first day. I turned to my parents to say goodbye.

"Bye, Rosie! We love you!" Mother said to me as I followed my cousins onto the train. I was about to follow Al and James into the next compartment on the train when I heard my mother calling me once more.

"Rosie darling! One of your textbooks fell out of your bag- come and get it before the train leaves!" I sighed, running towards my mother and grabbing A History of Magic out of her hands. I sped back towards the Hogwarts Express, making it back inside the train just before the doors closed.

I stared at the numerous chatting students on the train, not knowing where my cousins were. I had thought that Al would've waited up for me, but he probably just ended up going along with James and his friends. Victoire obviously would think it immature of me to be sitting with her and her other seventh-year friends. Walking through the many compartments of the train, I finally found an empty seat- right across from Scorpius Malfoy, the boy my father had told me to avoid. Next to him were two bulky, tall boys with chestnut hair, both with an identical unintelligent expression on their faces. I slowly sat down in my seat, hoping that he wouldn't notice me staring into his blue eyes.

"So I said to her, '_I_ was first in line!' But she wouldn't listen to me- she just _had_ to buy her books before I did. Filthy little mudblood," one of Scorpius' friends said. I grimaced as he said the word "mudblood." Once, my mother had been called that by a man who looked like he had had too much butterbeer, and my father ended up getting into a shouting match with him. I had learned later how bad that term was. Still, I continued to surreptitiously stare at Scorpius throughout the conversation. Eventually, after a lull in the conversation, he noticed my presence.

"What are you looking at?" Scorpius asked. Even though he sounded slightly annoyed, his voice was as smooth as silk. I struggled to come up with a reply, suddenly extremely nervous.

"Nothing…I'm not looking at anything," I stammered.

"Huh. I could've sworn you were looking right at me," Scorpius said. Surprisingly, his voice sounded equally as nervous as mine was. I didn't have any time to reply to this, however, as the food cart now rolled into our compartment.

"Anything off the cart for one of you?" the old witch said.

"I'll have a bag of every flavor beans," Scorpius and I both said at the same time. As the witch took Scorpius' friend's orders (both of them wanted large amounts of cockroach clusters) Scorpius and I both stared at each other. I guess it wasn't _that_ strange that we both wanted the same sweet, but neither of us knew where to proceed from there.

Suddenly, the door to the compartment opened, my cousins barging in.

"Rosie! _There_ you are! We've been looking all over for you! What are you doing with this slimy git, anyway? Didn't Dad tell you to stay away from him?" James questioned.

"Well…I…" I hesitated, searching my mind for a plausible excuse.

"Never mind. Rosie, come back with us- Liam Finnegan just ordered a bunch of Fizzing Whizzbees off the cart- you've got to watch him levitate, it's amazing!" Al shouted as he pulled me towards their compartment. I tried to wave goodbye to Scorpius, but James pushed my arm away.

"Rosie! What are you doing? Uncle Ron told you not to be with that boy!" James said.

"I was just sitting with him- it's not like we were snogging or anything! Leave me alone!" I defended.

"Now that's a boy that'll end up in Slytherin for sure. Not that you'll end up there- you'll be in Gryffindor, like me, obviously," James explained. I sighed and followed James and Al to their compartment of the train. I plopped down on a seat next to a girl who looked around my age, who turned around to face me as I sat down.

"Hi! What's your name? Of course, I haven't told you mine at all- I'm Isabella. Isabella Hopkins. So, are you excited about Hogwarts? I'm so excited- my Dad's told me all sorts of things about it. Do you know what house you'll be sorted into? I scarcely have any idea myself- just as long as it's not that dreadful Slytherin, then I'll be happy. Dad was a Hufflepuff, but there's nothing wrong with a Gryffindor, or a Ravenclaw. But I guess you'll have to take into consideration the defining characteristics of all the houses before you can decide…" Isabella prattled on and on, leaving me no room to answer any of the questions she had asked me. I stared out the window of the train, watching the rolling landscapes pass by quickly. I thought about Scorpius. Would I ever see him again? I'm sure I would, but I felt wary, after hearing what my relatives all said about him, when they didn't even know him. After several minutes of listening to the sound of Isabella's voice, I heard her trying to get my attention.

"Um, you didn't even answer my questions! Are you even listening to me?" Isabella accused.

"Yeah…sorry about that. I'm Rosie Weasley- my cousins are the ones eating the Fizzing Whizzbees over there," I pointed out Al and James, who had hit his head on the ceiling of the compartment after floating a bit too high.

"Oh yeah, them. Funny bunch of guys. So, how do you think my hair looks? I was originally thinking of wearing it up, but I couldn't find any hair ties…" Again, Isabella talked on and on without any regard to my existence whatsoever.

After a couple minutes, the door to our compartment opened- and there stood Scorpius, panting and out of breath.

"Have any of you seen my friends, Blaine and Blair Carrow? Last I saw, they were running after the food cart, begging for seconds. I was going to tell them to stop being such pigs," Scorpius explained. My cousins weren't kind to him.

"Get out of here! We all know that you just want to bully Rose. Well, we won't have it! No, we haven't seen your fat friends. Now get lost!" James yelled. Scorpius, hurt, gathered his things and attempted to walk out of the compartment. Unfortunately, he was so embarrassed by the encounter with my cousins that he failed to notice the tower of empty chocolate frog boxes in the corner. He then proceeded to trip over them, falling right into my lap in the process.

"HEY! What do you think you're doing to our cousin? I thought we told you to get out!" James shouted.

"I was…it was just…an accident…" Scorpius stammered.

"Yeah, he didn't mean to!" I said.

"An accident- yeah right! That boy is nothing but trouble, Rosie. Now, if you don't get out of this compartment within the next five seconds and stop bugging our cousin, you're going to pay," James threatened, holding up his fists. Scorpius slowly slunk out of our compartment. I turned to yell at my cousin.

"James, that wasn't very nice! He just tripped- it was an accident!"

"Rosie, you don't understand. Boys like that are nothing but trouble. You'd be better sticking with nicer boys, like the ones that'll be in Gryffindor with you. Now, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with a Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff boy, but Slytherin boys are always up to no good," James explained.

"You're the one who doesn't understand! He's a nice boy…"

"Who hangs out with those wretched Carrow twins!" James interrupted. "Rosie, I want you to stay away from that boy, and that's final!"

"Fine," I sulked. I didn't want to argue further and have my first day end on a worse note. Still, I couldn't stop thinking about Scorpius. I know I'm young, but those eyes...why is everyone against us just _talking_? There's no harm in that. I sighed, wishing the train ride would go faster so that I could get caught up in the sorting ceremony and not think about such things.


	2. No Surprise

A/N: Some credit goes to Kid for this, as she helped me with a lot of the idea and the fleshing out of this chapter. I can honestly say that I took a lot of time on this chapter: I had to revisit parts of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone to check details and such. I've also, really, really enjoyed working on this fanfic so far. Thanks to my reviewers: froga10t and Slywithia! Also, thanks to the Harry Potter Lexicon for being a great resource Read and review please! Chapter 3 might be delayed a bit, because of school starting on Wednesday.

Chapter 2: No Surprise

Finally, the long train ride was over, after an argument by my cousins about whether sherbet balls or fizzing whizzbees make you levitate higher. We stepped off the train and onto the ground by the lake, me looking around frantically for Victoire. Maybe _she'd_ understand how I feel about Scorpius. Finally, I spotted her, chatting frenetically with a group of her friends.

"Victoire! I need to talk to you!" I shouted.

"It'll have to wait, Rosie. I'm really busy right now," Victoire said as she continued to talk with her friends.

"But it's _important_!" I whined. Victoire motioned her friends to go on and stooped down to my height, as she was very tall for her age.

"Listen, sweetie, now is really not a good time. I haven't seen any of my friends since June, and believe me; I have a _lot_ of catching up to do. And frankly, being seen talking to a first-year really isn't that cool. Even if she is your cousin," Victoire said icily.

"But James talks to me!" I protested.

"Him? He's an immature boy. He doesn't understand half the rules of this place, believe me. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to apply some more lipgloss. Besides, Hagrid's already calling the first-years to the boats," Victoire pointed out. She was right. Hagrid, as old as ever, was leading me and my fellow first-years over to lit boats on the lake. By this time, I had lost track of both Al and Isabella, so I climbed into a boat at random. To my surprise, the boat contained Scorpius Malfoy, along with Blair and Blaine, who took up most of the rest of the boat.

"We meet again," Scorpius said. His golden hair shone beautifully in the glow of the lanterns that were hanging from the boats. The two of us stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity. How I wished that we could spend the entire boat ride just like this, both of us unable to say a word but still enamored by each other's presence. Unfortunately, Blaine had to spoil the moment.

"Guys, you will _not_ believe how many cockroach clusters I ate on the train ride over here. I think I'm gonna barf," Blaine announced as he suddenly turned green.

"How many?" Blair asked.

"Probably around three hundred…maybe four hundred, I don't know. I lost count at ten," Blaine admitted.

"Bloody hell!" Blair said.

"Yeah, I know. I don't think I ever ate that much. Well, maybe I did yesterday," Blaine said. Scorpius and I looked at each other. I could tell that both of us thought that Blaine and Blair's behavior was outrageously sophomoric, but we were both forced to endure the gross-out humor throughout the boat ride. After being forced to hear Blaine and Blair dare each other to eat various amounts of disgusting things once they got to their common room (undoubtedly Slytherin) the boat docked at the castle. For some reason, I hadn't thought of a single thing to say to Scorpius during our boat ride. Whenever I saw him, my usual ease at conversation seemed to fail me, leaving me a faltering mess. He probably thought I was just another hopelessly idiotic first-year. As we left the boat to head to the sorting ceremony, I knew that I had to say something to him before we were separated once more.

"Hey!" I shouted in Scorpius's general direction.

"What?" Scorpius asked, turning around to face me. Suddenly, the words that I prepared became jumbled in my mouth as I looked into his gorgeous eyes once more.

"Um, I'm Rosie, and…well, I guess you already know that, and…I just wanted to say that I hope we see each other again…cause you seem like a nice guy," I stumbled through my words, as nervous as if I had just made a speech in front of the whole school.

"Whatever," Scorpius replied. Great. I just succeeded in making yourself look like an idiot in front of the first new student I met at Hogwarts. Scorpius probably won't look twice at me now. I should've just kept my mouth shut.

"Rosie! Over here! Come on, everyone's heading into the Great Hall! The sorting's about to begin!" Al shouted at me. I ran to catch up with him, as he was much nearer to the castle than I was.

"Where were you? I wanted you to end up on the boat with me, Liam, and Isabella, but then Marie went and joined us. Come on, we're going to be late!" Al pulled me into a line with the other first years as Professor Longbottom began explaining the sorting to us. Having learned all about it from my parents and other relatives, I tuned out most of his instructions. After that, I started to wait until the sorting began. Most of my fellow first-years looked nervous. What did they think we had to do, wrestle a troll? Even Al looked nervous, as he was petrified about being sorted into Slytherin. I guess I was too, a little bit, but I certainly wasn't going to show it. Besides, if Scorpius was so sure he was going to be in Slytherin, then maybe being in that house wasn't so bad after all.

Finally, the Sorting Hat had ended his song and the Sorting began.

"Abington, Loraine!" Professor Longbottom called out as a short, mousy-looking girl with braids placed the hat on her head.

"HUFFLEPUFF!" the hat proclaimed. Loraine then walked to the Hufflepuff table as "Ackerley, Julio" became the first Ravenclaw. Soon after "Bronder, Eleanor" joined the Gryffindor table, Scorpius's friends ran up to be sorted. Unsurprisingly, both Blaine and Blair Carrow became Slytherins.

After "Goldstein, Chandra" became a Ravenclaw, it was Isabella's turn to try on the hat. The hat took over a minute to decide, but before Isabella became impatient, it declared her a Gryffindor and, with a squeal of delight, she ran over to join Eleanor, Christian Coote, Liam Finnegan, and Hugh Hooper at the Gryffindor table.

Throughout the sorting, I looked at Scorpius, who, unlike the other students, didn't have a touch of nervousness on his face. He remained calm and seemed to view what the other students saw as a nerve-wracking exercise as just a walk in the park. When it became his turn to be sorted after "Macmillan, Kelly" was made a Hufflepuff, he walked up to the hat and placed it on his head like it was something he did every day. To no surprise, the hat was on his head for barely a second when it shouted "SLYTHERIN!" Scorpius then promptly sat down next to Blaine and Blair at the Slytherin table.

I glanced down the line to Al, who was shaking with fear. It was almost his turn; after "Oles, Clinton" and "Pierro, Karina" were sorted, he walked slowly up to the hat and, trembling, placed it on his head. After what seemed like an eternity, the hat declared him a "GRYFFINDOR!" Al, jumping for joy, nearly knocked down Professor Longbottom, who was standing behind him about to read the next student's name, in the process. Blushing, he ran to the Gryffindor table to join my cousins.

I gulped. The number of students in line in front of me slowly diminished as they were sorted to their prospective houses. Finally, only one student stood in front of me: "Valenza, Darren" who was quickly made a Gryffindor. I suddenly realized why the other students had been so nervous. Slowly, I walked up to the hat, placing it on my head.

"Another Weasley, eh?" a small voice inside my ear said. "You guys multiply like rabbits! I know just where to put you. GRYFFINDOR!" I watched my cousins clapping from across the room as the hat announced my house to the entire hall. And then I glanced at Scorpius, over at the Slytherin table. It might have been my imagination, but I could've sworn I saw a look of disappointment flash across his face for just a second.

"Nice work, Rosie!" James said, patting me on the back as I joined the Gryffindor table.

"All I had to do was try on a hat. It was really nothing," I admitted as "Zabini, Jordan" was made a Slytherin.

"Just trying on a hat? More like upholding the family name! You know Uncle Ron would've disowned you had you been made a Slytherin," James reminded me.

"But Dad said it didn't matter!" Al pleaded.

"Oh, they all _say_ that, but we all know they'd be disappointed if we were in any house but Gryffindor. But, luckily, there were no surprises here today. You and Rosie are in Gryffindor, and Scorpius and those filthy Carrow twins are where they belong- in Slytherin!" James said.

"Be quiet, James! Headmistress McGonagall's about to speak!" Al said.

"Welcome, students!" McGonagall announced. "I'll start my proper speech after the banquet, of course, but it looks like we're going to have a great year ahead of us here at Hogwarts. Now, I know all of you are anxious to start enjoying the banquet, so I'll start it with a few words from one of Hogwarts's most famous headmasters, Albus Dumbledore: nitwit, blubber, oddment, tweak! Thank you." McGonagall sat down as the plates in front of us became filled with delicious food. In between bites, Isabella started to tell me about how she almost left her pet rat, Cyrano, at home by mistake. As usual, her story was filled with several unnecessary details.

"We were almost out the door when I realized that I had left him in his cage- my mother insists I keep in a cage, she hates rodents- and so then I ran up to my bedroom, only to realize that he had escaped again, like he usually does every month…" Isabella continued. In the meantime, I overheard Marie Kirke and Christian Coote discussing Quidditch.

"My Dad said he'd let me use his old broomstick if I make the Gryffindor team," she explained.

"Mother and Father took me to the World Cup last year- you should've seen Puddlemere United's new Keeper!" he said.

Apart from Isabella and my cousins, no one seemed to want to strike up a conversation with me. I glanced at Scorpius at his table across the room, watching him sigh as Blair and Blaine shoveled seemingly endless amounts of food into their mouths. Somehow, I was sure that if he was in Gryffindor, sitting at this table, I'd find something to talk to him about. Isabella was now wrapping up her story.

"But now he's here with me, thank God. Ooh, dessert!" Isabella exclaimed as our plates began to fill up with rice pudding and other assorted sweets. After pausing to munch on a chocolate éclair, Isabella launched into another anecdote about the cake she had for her most recent birthday. James noticed my silence.

"What's with you, Rosie? Normally you're really talkative, but I've barely heard you say a word all day!" James remarked.

"Just…overwhelmed, is all," I lied. In reality, I was more worried than overwhelmed, though I couldn't quite figure out why. Here was the day I had dreamt of for years, and nothing had turned out quite like I expected. James had said that there were no surprises today. Maybe, for him, that was true. But for me, the day was full of surprises. Who would've thought that the one person I spent most of my time thinking about today was the one that Dad told me to stay away from? I thought I would have no trouble making friends at Hogwarts, but the only person who's shown an interest in talking to me besides my cousins is an annoying chatterbox. "Relax," I told myself. "It _is_ only the first day, after all. Maybe tomorrow will bring about better things."

Still, all through the banquet and McGonagall's speech that followed, I couldn't stop thinking about Scorpius- and how I felt that, with him around, my time at Hogwarts would be filled with even more surprises as the days passed on.


	3. We Rearrange

A/N: Thanks to all my reviewers: Slywithia (again), MsRoseWeasley, and KoshKing777! Sorry that this chapter is shorter than the last one: I wanted to get it out before school started. Chapter 4 will probably be longer. Again, huge huge thanks to Kid for being awesome. READ AND REVIEW PLEASE!

Chapter 3: We Rearrange

After spending nearly two months in Hogwarts, I found that it wasn't as bad as I first thought. I began talking to Eleanor Bronder, a shy girl who didn't say much until we headed up to our dormitory after the banquet. Like me, had just about had it with Isabella's constant chattering, and, after Isabella was keeping us all awake by telling us about the Weird Sister's 9th Farewell Tour, which she attended in June, Eleanor promptly told her to shut up.

As these were the first words Eleanor (or Nellie, as she told us to call her) had spoken all day, the rest of us looked at her in surprise. Most of the other girls, especially Isabella, thought she was rather strange, but after her declaration in the dormitory, she became one of my only friends. We often discussed our families. She was muggle-born and an only child, coming from a small family. As a result, she was insanely jealous of all the relatives I had. As much as I tried to tell her how annoying they could be, she still wanted to meet them all. At the moment, on the way to our Charms class, she was trying to persuade me to invite her to come home with me over the Christmas holidays.

"Please? I won't be too much trouble! I've never had a proper Christmas dinner before- we always ended up going to some restaurant, my parents were horrid cooks," she explained. I was becoming exasperated.

"Look, I don't even know if I'm even coming home for Christmas- James said that usually we stay and have dinner here. And even if we do come home, won't your parents miss you?" I asked.

"Nah- they're going somewhere tropical for Christmas. Mum definitely won't want me to tag along- I haven't spoken a word to her since she found out I was a witch."

"Nellie, you're being unreasonable. It isn't even Halloween yet. I've been dedicating all my time to my Charms homework, not to planning my holidays."

"Oh, wasn't that hard? It took me forever to finish it. I hate Professor Wilbourn- she's so perky all the time. Makes me sick. Plus, we have to have class with those wretched Slytherins. Ugh!" Nellie said, wrinkling her nose in disgust.

"Oh, come on! It's not _that _bad. Plus, Wilbourn says we'll be learning how to make objects fly today in class! I'm so excited!" I said as we walked into Wilbourn's classroom. I took my usual place next to Nellie at a desk at the front of the classroom just as Professor Wilbourn was about to address the class.

"Good morning, students!" Professor Wilbourn chirped, with a huge smile on her face. "As you know, today we are learning one of the essential charms: _wingardium leviosa_! Isn't it exciting?" she remarked, ignoring the dull expressions on the faces of her students.

"Right. Now, I'm going to pair you guys up today so you can practice! It's going to be so much fun! And you're not just going to be with the person next to you, either. I'm going to assign pairs RANDOMLY! Yay!" Professor Wilbourn announced. I had no idea how she could be so perky this early in the morning- the class was right after breakfast. Must be all the tea she has at breakfast. None of my other professors treated assigning partners like a party.

"Eleanor Bronder, you'll be with…Tamika Bletchley!" Nellie and Tamika both groaned. They hated each other from the moment Tamika made a crack about Nellie being muggle-born in the halls one day. Professor Wilbourn, however, didn't seem to notice this. She kept on calling out the names of the partners until, finally, two names were left.

"And Rose Weasley, you're with...well, it's obvious, isn't it? Scorpius Malfoy!" I looked at Scorpius, who was currently sitting between Blair and Blaine Carrow. Cautiously, I walked over to his desk and sat down after Blair and Blaine went to their partners.

"And so remember boys and girls: a swish and a flick will do just the trick!" Professor Wilbourn said, demonstrating with her wrist. "Now get to it!"

Neither Scorpius nor I knew what to say at this moment. After several minutes of silence, I spoke up.

"Well, um…I guess I'll give it a try. I'm probably gonna be really bad at this…_Wingardium Leviosa_!" To my surprise, the feather immediately floated up into the air.

"Everyone, look! Rose's just done it! Five points for Gryffindor!" Professor Wilbourn cheered as the entire class stared at me, wondering how I had accomplished that feat so fast.

"Wow, Rose! You're amazing!" Al, who was sitting with his partner in the desk across from us, said.

"How'd you do that?" Scorpius asked, dumbfounded.

"You know what? I have no idea," I admitted. "I mean, I've watched Mum do it all the time, but I never thought I'd be able to do it on the first try."

"Hmm. I'll try it, then, to see if I'll have your luck," Scorpius said. "_Wingardium leviosa_!" The feather remained on the desk. As I looked around at my classmates, I saw that his experience was not uncommon. Al and his partner, a rather large girl named Bertha Higgs, had no success. Blaine and Blair, who Professor Wilbourn always partnered together, had only succeeded in setting their feather on fire and watching it burn instead of doing anything to extinguish it or make it fly. Isabella was telling her partner (an uninterested Jordan Zabini) about her recipe for peanut butter banana crisp rice bars, paying no attention to the task at hand.

"Here, let me help you. If you want, that is. I mean, if you'd rather work it out yourself, that's fine too, I don't want to seem too much of a bother…" I babbled. Scorpius gave me a funny look.

"Uh…sure, that'd be fine."

"Ok. First of all, you're not moving your arms that much at all. And it's _swish and flick_, not _flick and swish_. And another thing…"

"Wait, what was the first thing? Not so fast, you're confusing me," Scorpius said, looking straight at me.

"Um…why don't you watch me do it again, so you can see how it's done," I said, mesmerized by his gaze. "_Wingardium leviosa!_" The feather rose into the air once again.

"Ok, now you're just showing off," Al remarked. Scorpius tried and failed a couple more times as I instructed him in the proper technique. Just as he was about to try for one last time, a shout rose out from the middle of the class.

"Professor Wilbourn? Can I have a different partner? I refuse to work with this _mudblood_," Tamika hissed.

"Take that back right now!" Nellie yelled.

"Never. Your kind don't belong _here_."

"That's it!" Nellie shouted, punching Tamika squarely in the jaw. Tamika followed by slapping Nellie across the face. The fight continued to escalate as Scorpius and I, horrified, looked on. Professor Wilbourn tried to control the class, but once the fight broke out, it was of no use. Finally, Professor Wilbourn separated Tamika and Nellie to opposite ends of the room by magic, sending a shower of purple sparks from her wand to get the rest of the class's attention.

"Miss Bletchley, Miss Bronder," Professor Wilbourn said curtly, in a rare moment of absolutely no enthusiasm. "I am taking fifty points from each of your houses for such an immature display. In addition, both of you will receive a detention in my office immediately following dinner tonight." By this point, class was almost over. With all of our attention, Professor Wilbourn addressed the class once more, her pep suddenly returning.

"Ok, class! Looks like Rose's the only one who has successfully done it, but you all have plenty of time to try next class. For homework: 3 scrolls on the importance of levitation and how it changed our wizarding world. And remember: practice, practice, practice! I want all of you to be able to make that feather fly by the next class! Class dismissed," Professor Wilbourn said.

"Wait, Professor Wilbourn, I think I have it!" Scorpius announced. "_Wingardium leviosa_!" To my delight, the feather rose in the air just as it had for me.

"Well done, Scorpius! Practice _does_ make perfect!" Professor Wilbourn said.

As the feather settled to the ground, Scorpius gave me a hug. I didn't know what to think. The whole class was staring at us. Quickly, we both pulled away.

"So, did you read about that Quidditch match the other day?" Scorpius asked, trying to come up with a distraction.

"Yeah- the Chudley Cannons lost again," I said, keeping up with the ruse. No one seemed to believe it, as people were still giving us weird looks as we left. We both walked away, stunned at what had just happened between us. I met up with Nellie after class, who was sporting several bruises from the fight.

"I hate her!" Nellie vented, referring to Tamika. "She's such a little brat. Once she told Wilbourn that she refused to work with a mudblood, I had just about had it. How dare she say a thing like that? And now I have detention! I hate that class."

"I don't find it that bad, actually," I admitted.

"Easy for you to say- you actually got that blasted spell to work. I don't understand how you managed to work with that Scorpius kid, though- he gives me the creeps."

"Well, I managed. I would've loved to have been partnered with you or Al, though. It makes me more nervous when I have to do spells in front of people," I lied. In fact, it didn't make me nervous at all, and I was glad that I was partnered with Scorpius- it gave us another chance to talk. I still didn't see why everyone else didn't like him, but I wasn't going to tell Nellie about it right now.

"It certainly didn't look that way to me- you got it to work twice! Plus, you and Scorpius were practically snogging by the end of class!" Great. I knew I wasn't a good liar.

"Snogging? Ew! I just helped him with the spell, that's all." Nellie gave me a funny look as we walked up to our common room. I had hoped that most of my classmates were too distracted by the fight to notice what Scorpius and I were doing, but it seemed that wasn't the case. Oh well. Nellie and the rest of my friends would just have to rearrange their attitudes just as Tamika had had her jar rearranged by Nellie, because I was determined to stop pretending that Scorpius and I were becoming friends.


	4. What are you looking surprised for?

A/N: Thanks to all of my reviewers for this chapter: KoshKing777 and Sylwithia! Everyone, please tell all of your friends about this story- I'm looking for more readers! Sorry this took so long- I've been extremely busy with school starting, as I'm taking 3 AP classes. Blegh. Kudos goes to Kid, again. PLEASE READ AND REVIEW!

Chapter 4: What are you looking surprised for?

Time sure flies by when you're having fun. It was already almost my birthday (March 20th), and it seemed like only a month had passed since I first stepped onto the train.

James became a Beater on the Quidditch team- though most people thought that the only reason that he made the team was that Victoire was the captain. We had already lost our first two games, but James was still hoping for the best.

I continued to perform well in Charms, as well as most of my other subjects, so much so that nearly every day I was hit by a barrage of my classmates asking me for help on an assignment. Some of them, like Nellie, I was able to work with easily. Even Isabella, when she wasn't talking to me about what color socks she wore, was usually able to understand concepts that she had missed in class because she was talking to her friends. Others, however, proved to be more difficult. After Tamika approached me about helping her with her History of Magic homework, as long as she didn't "have to work with my mudblood friend" I almost considered punching her myself. I didn't find any of the Slytherins particularly appealing, actually- except for Scorpius, of course.

Even though my friends had forgotten about our hug in Charms, I certainly hadn't forgotten it. When he asked me for help with his Transfiguration homework, I had to keep myself from jumping for joy. Soon, we were meeting weekly in an empty classroom to "help each other with our homework" which mostly meant just talking about random things. Some homework was done, however, as I was adamant that we keep some academics in our weekly meetings.

Today, Scorpius and I had just about finished up our Defense Against the Dark Arts homework when I remembered that I had promised Isabella that I'd meet her in the common room soon. She apparently wanted my opinion on whether her new peanut butter crunch bars were better with or without the bananas.

"Sorry Scorpius, but I don't have time to stay and talk today. I promised Isabella I'd meet her in the common room tonight- something about testing out a recipe. I'm sure it'll be _fascinating_," I said sarcastically. "Oh, and we probably won't have time to meet next week, 'cause it's my birthday,"

"Oh," Scorpius said, slightly disappointed. We both walked out of the classroom and to our respective common rooms. Once there, I groaned as Isabella prattled on about the new "Exploding Necklaces" that all of the girls were wearing throughout Hogwarts. I personally didn't see why one would by a necklace if they knew it was going to explode right after they got it, but, according to Isabella, I wasn't up with the times. I sighed. It was going to be a long week.

Finally, my birthday was here. So far, the day ended up being fairly uneventful. Sure, I wasn't expecting Nellie to jump onto my bed at the crack of dawn armed with a small batch of Muggle fireworks that she had smuggled in from home, but other than that, there were no surprises. At the Great Hall that morning Victoire, James, and Al all gave me their presents: a magically detangling hairbrush, an Ever-Bashing Boomerang, and some chocolate frogs, respectively. As much as I tried to remind James about the ban on the boomerangs, he was undeterred, saying that "Filch is practically blind by now anyway."

This was true. Filch and his cat, Mrs. Norris, were both still at Hogwarts, despite the failing health of both of them. McGonagall kept on trying to make Filch leave, tempting him with a large sum after he retired, but he refused.

Besides my cousins, Nellie gave me a bag of Muggle sweets, which I didn't get often, as I preferred wizarding treats much better. Liam Finnegan, blushing, gave me a Rememberall. I told him that he didn't need to spend that much on me, but he ran away before I could say any more. A weird child, that Liam.

And so the day passed on as usual, even though it was my birthday. I ended up being late to Defense Against the Dark Arts for the second time this week, causing Professor Studley to take twenty points away from Gryffindor. I protested, trying to use my birthday as an excuse, but to no avail.

After Defense Against the Dark Arts, I proceeded down to the empty classroom where Scorpius and I usually met, forgetting that I had cancelled our meeting for this week. As soon as I saw him waiting outside the door, I knew that he had forgotten as well- or maybe not. Maybe, I thought, he just _wanted_ to see me. Maybe he had a birthday present. This was probably all wishful thinking to myself, but secretly I hoped that Scorpius was here for more than just homework help.

"Hey- I cancelled this week, remember? It's my birthday," I said, gesturing to the balloons that Victoire had enchanted to float over my head all day.

"Yeah, I know that, but…can we still hang out?" Scorpius asked.

"Yeah, sure. I don't have a lot of other plans for today," I added as we both walked into the classroom in silence.

"So…what do you want to work on?" I asked.

"I said I wanted to _hang out_, not _work_."

"Oh. Right." Both of us sat down, staring at each other, having no idea what to say.

"Who got you the balloons?" Scorpius asked.

"Victoire. They're kind of annoying, actually- they keep bumping into candles." Scorpius chuckled.

"Yeah, I would imagine that would be a problem."

"Definitely- I almost set Professor Studley's hair on fire. Good thing he didn't take away any points away from my house." We both laughed again. I was wondering if I should just leave, considering how awkward this was.

"You know what? I think we better work on that Potions essay," Scorpius said. "I can't understand what Professor Challis wants us to do."

"The Potions essay? That's easy! We went over Forgetfulness potions just the other day!"

"I know. I guess I just forgot," Scorpius said in a lame attempt at a joke.

"Very funny. You're right, though- that we should get some work done, I mean. Then we'll talk, I guess." And so we worked. Scorpius was still struggling with Charms, while I continued to excel in most subjects. McGonagall even commented one day that I was just like my mother was at this age, which I suppose was a compliment. I wonder if I'll end up like she did- working in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement at the Ministry of Magic and barely being home half the time. I doubt it. I don't want to be cooped up in a stuffy old office all day.

I looked at my watch, astounded to see that it was almost time to get back to the common room.

"Sorry Scorpius, but I have to go," I said.

"Me too. Blaine and Blair said they had some sort of birthday surprise for me," he added nonchalantly. A look of surprise washed over my face.

"What are you looking surprised for?" Scorpius asked.

"It's your birthday today?" I asked him.

"Yeah. What's it to you?"

"We have the same birthday! This is so cool! I'm sorry I didn't get you anything- you should have told me!"

"My family doesn't really make a great deal about my birthday. Dad always just gives me some money and tells me to spend it as I like. I've never even had a proper cake," he admitted.

"Really? That's so sad. I always get loads of presents from all my family members, and a huge cake and everything…" Scorpius looked sad. "Oh, I didn't mean to make you jealous!"

"No, it's fine. I have to go," he said.

"Wait!" I said, fishing into my bag for something to give him, finally finding the Rememberall that Liam gave me. Scorpius stopped at the door.

"You can have this," I said. "Liam gave it to me. It glows red whenever you forget something. I don't think I'll really use it, so…catch!" I threw it to Scorpius, who caught it in his hands. The Rememberall immediately glowed red.

"You must be forgetting something right now," I observed.

"What could that be…oh, I know!" Scorpius said, reaching in his pocket. "I got a present for you, too! Happy birthday, Rose!" He pulled out a bag of Every Flavor Beans.

"My favorite candy! You remembered!" I squeaked.

"Yeah. My Mom sent a whole batch up for my birthday. She keeps sending me candy, but I just give it to Blaine and Blair."

"Thanks a lot, Scorpius!"

"I know it's not much," he said, walking towards me. "But maybe this will make up for it." And at that moment, he gave me an even bigger and better hug than he did in Charms. And this time, we didn't have to let go.


	5. I could care less for things like that

A/N: Wow! I actually updated this fic! Gasp! Shock! I'm done applying to colleges, so the updates probably won't be as sporadic now. This is mostly dialogue filler, but it's semi-important. Especially the end. Thanks to all of my reviewers: KoshKing777, Sylwithia, froga10t, and sorrybut! (Hands them cookies). This is my 5th chapter, and the end of part 1 of this fanfic. Part 2 will begin next update. Please read and review this!

Chapter 5: I could care less for things like that

May was now here. Now, in our weekly meetings, Scorpius and I were furiously preparing for exams, leaving no time for idle chitchat. This week, Scorpius even had to cancel our meeting- something about judging an eating contest between Blair and Blaine Carrow. I still wanted to get some studying done, though, so I gathered my books and walked up to the Gryffindor Common Room. As I started to study for Charms, I overheard my classmates talking to their friends.

"Don't be such a drama queen…"

"You should just do what makes you happy, without feeling guilty…"

"You're not fat, honestly…"

I sighed. I knew I should be happy to have so much uninterrupted study time, but without someone to talk to and bounce ideas off of, the time crawled by at a snail's pace. I tried to concentrate, but the words on the page of A History of Magic all seemed to blur together on the page. I was just starting to doze off when I heard Victoire calling me

"Rosie! Come here! I have something to ask you!" Victoire said. Awaking, I walked to the other side of the room, where Victoire and her friends were arranged in a small circle. I felt important to be included in Victoire's conversation, as she usually pretended that I didn't exist. Victoire then proceeded to hold up two virtually identical "exploding necklaces".

"I want your opinion, Rosie. Which one looks better, the pink one, or the blue one? The blue one matches my eyes, but the pink one looks so pretty!" Victoire exclaimed. She interrupted my nap for this?

"Why don't you bewitch the necklace to change color when you want it to?" I innocently suggested.

"Oh my God! What a great idea! Rosie, you're the greatest," Victoire said sweetly.

"But what happens when the necklace explodes?" Alana Agrippa, Victoire's best friend, asked.

"Oh, well, then I'll just buy a new one," Victoire dismissed. "They don't cost that much, anyway. So, guys, did you see how Everett looked at me yesterday? I just about died."

"That new guy? Bad choice, Victoire. He kinda creeps me out," Alana remarked.

"Yeah- didn't he transfer from Durmstrang or something? Who does that?" Nita Towler remarked. I felt slightly guilty for eavesdropping on my cousin's conversation, but since she wasn't actively shooing me away, I decided to listen.

"Shut up, you guys! I like him. He seems like such a bad boy."

"You got that right- he almost killed Ken McGreevy in the hallway yesterday!" Maryanne Boomer added.

"You guys don't understand! He's a nice guy!" Victoire pleaded.

"Yeah, nice until he punches you in the face!" Alana giggled. "Besides, whatever happened to Teddy? Weren't you dating him last month?"

"I was. We had a fight. But I'm over him, don't worry," Victoire blushed.

"No, you're not! I bet you're only pursuing Everett to make Teddy jealous!" Nita commented. As I looked at Victoire's friends, I wondered why Victoire was friends with them. According to her, they were the coolest students in Hogwarts, but they sure didn't seem like good friends to me.

I knew the guy Victoire was talking about- Everett Sloper. A couple months ago, he had transferred to Hogwarts from Durmstrang. Transferring schools in the wizarding world was virtually unheard of- usually, unless you did something really bad, you stayed in your school until you graduated. People _had_ been rumoring that Everett had done something bad, though- bad enough to get him expelled. Victoire seemed attracted to that kind of guy, though- Aunt Fleur and Uncle Bill nearly fainted when she started dating Wallace Rosier, who almost got expelled after he entered a violent duel with another student last year. While I was glad when they stopped dating, I felt almost empathetic for Victoire in this case. Even though Scorpius and I weren't in a relationship in the slightest, it was becoming harder and harder for me to hide the fact that I was studying with him once a week.

I ended up spending a couple more hours in the common room, trying to study. Soon, only Victoire and I were left, as her friends went up to their room a couple minutes ago. While Victoire gathered her stuff up to join them, I stopped her for a second. I wanted to know what was up with her boy troubles. Her life seemed so more sophisticated than mine.

"Victoire?"

"Yeah?"

"You're not _really_ going to go out with Everett Sloper, are you?" I asked. I wanted to see what insights she would give.

"I don't know, Rosie. It's all so complicated…he's a good guy, but… I still kinda like Teddy," she admitted.

"So Nita was right!"

"I guess. Well, what was I supposed to do? Mope around like some loser?" She had a point. I was still curious about her falling-out with Teddy, though.

"What happened with you two, anyway?" I asked.

"Oh…it was stupid. You wouldn't understand."

"Come on, you can tell me."

"Fine. Well, Teddy and I were talking, and…I told him I loved him." I was confused, not knowing why this would cause a fight.

"What's wrong with that?"

"I knew you wouldn't understand. Teddy was just afraid of commitment, that's all. And then I told him that I didn't want to get committed, that wasn't my intention, but then he accused me of using 'love' too lightly, and then I told him that I was getting a 'love' vibe from our relationship anyway, and then he told me that he needed some time to figure things out, and then I told him that he definitely should. And then he told me I looked fat." I was completely lost.

"Wait…what?"

"The point, Rosie, is not to tell a guy you love him too early in a relationship. It messes everything up. Not that you'll have to worry about that, of course, you're still young, but still..." She checked her watch. "Wow! I can't believe I spent such a long time talking to you. My friends must be wondering where I am. Bye!"

I didn't understand most of what Victoire said about boys, but I kept mental notes of what she said in case I needed it in the future. Personally, I thought she and Teddy should just make up, but it obviously is more complicated than that. I was glad that Scorpius wasn't as complicated as some of the boys in Victoire's life- then I would barely be able to string a sentence together in front of him.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It was now the week before finals. It seemed like everyone at Hogwarts was studying. Instead of chatter, the common room was now full of students feverishly studying for their exams. Scorpius and I still met as usual, but mainly just hit the books and didn't leave any time for conversation. Today was no exception- we didn't say a word to each other when we first walked in, instead focusing on memorization and how to perform spells. After half an hour had passed, though, Scorpius burst out laughing. His laughter scared me as it broke the silence.

"What's so funny?" I asked.

"I was just thinking about something Dad said."

"What?"

"On the first day of school, before I got on the train, Dad said, 'Son, I have one piece of advice for you,'" Scorpius said, imitating his father. "'Stay far, far away from that Weasley girl over there- her family is nothing but a bunch of mudblood loving freaks. You'll have no problem beating her on all of your exams.'" He chuckled. "And I was just thinking about that, because now we're helping each other with our exams…and I'm deliberately going against his advice. I don't think I've ever done that before."

"You're kidding! My Dad said almost the exact same thing to me when we left! Minus the 'mudblood loving freaks' part, of course, which we are most certainly _not_, I might add."

"I never said you were! That's just what Mum and Dad think. I didn't know you, so I decided not to pass judgment until I met you."

"Well, I'm glad you did," I added. We stared in silence for a while as I looked into his large, icy blue eyes. Many girls in my year thought that his eyes looked evil and piercing, but to me they weren't that bad.

"No one in my family likes you, either, if it makes you feel any better," I added. "You saw how my cousins were on the train. If James found out we were spending so much time together, he'd send a wicked curse your way."

"Don't get me wrong, I love my family, but…they can be so _dumb_ sometimes!" Scorpius lamented.

"I thought you never went against any of your father's advice."

"I don't, but…this is different. _You're_ different. You're totally not like I thought you would be like."

"And what exactly did you think I would be like?" I asked.

"I don't know. A mudblood-loving freak, I guess, because that's what Dad said. I had no idea why you wanted to hang out with me on the first day."

"It's not like I had a choice in the matter- I kept losing track of Al and James," I admitted. "If they saw me now, they wouldn't believe it," We both laughed. "I don't know what our parents would do if we saw that we were practically falling in love," I said nonchalantly. A horrified look crossed Scorpius's face.

"Love?! You think we're falling in _love_?" I then realized what I had said.

"Scorpius, I didn't mean it like that…it just came out of my mouth, I didn't realize…" I sadly pleaded.

"Rosie, love is stupid! We're 11! I could care less for things like that. You know that!" Scorpius yelled. "I never even wanted to study with you, anyway! You talk too much! I'm leaving!" He slammed the door of the classroom.

Why did I just do that? Did I even listen to what Victoire had told me? I'm such an idiot. I gathered my books and walked out of the classroom in tears.

END OF PART 1


	6. Fun?

A/N: First and foremost, I'd like to give a huge thanks to all of my reviewers: Avanell, MsRoseWeasley, and dessismama! Because of you (and everyone else that has reviewed) I'm going to try to update this fic more. I definitely have lots of good ideas planned for it. Also, if you're a fan of Rose/Scorpius fics, I'd like to pimp out my new C2 Community, "Don't Get Too Friendly." It's chock-full of Rose/Scorpius fics for your reading pleasure. I'd like for people to subscribe and keep on adding more stories to it, so please do! READ AND REVIEW!

Part 2: And it Bleeds (Second Year)

Chapter 6: Fun?

Just as I had been nervous when leaving for Hogwarts last year, my brother, Hugo, and cousin, Lily, were wrecks. And I had to look out for both of them while at the same time trying to find Scorpius and explain what had happened that day before finals. Technically, Al and James were told to watch over Hugo and Lily as well, but of course they didn't listen, wanting instead to hang out with their friends. Lily in particular was especially nervous, reminding me of a fluttering hummingbird as she continually pestered me with questions.

"Rosie? Do you think I'm going to be sorted into Gryffindor like you?" she asked.

"Probably, but it's all up to the hat, you know. You shouldn't worry about that stuff, though- it's not like we'll be mad if you're not a Gryffindor," I replied.

"Rosie? Do you think James will let me try out his Nimbus Infinity broom when we're there?" Hugo questioned.

"Definitely not, Hugo, you know that. He won't even let me use it- he guards that thing with his life." Both of them seemed unsatisfied with my answers. Before they could open their mouths again, though, I spoke to both of them once more.

"Both of you need to calm down- the train's almost here. You're both going to do fine. This is supposed to be fun, remember?" I reassured.

"Fun? But what if I can't do any spells and everyone laughs at me and I get sorted into Slytherin and…" Lily pattered on. I sighed. It was hopeless. As I saw the Hogwarts Express pull into the station, Hugo and I said goodbye to our mother and father. I almost had to force Hugo on the train because he was so nervous.

Soon after Hugo, Lily, and I stepped onto the train, we found places in a compartment with Liam Finnegan, Nellie, and two first-year girls who looked as scared a Hugo and Lily did. I barely recognized Nellie when I first saw her- she seemed to have completely transformed her appearance. Her once silky, straight, waist-length chocolate brown hair was now black, curly, and cut at her neck. She also had caked a huge amount of makeup onto her face. When I first saw her, her nose was in a book, and she barely looked up when I came in.

"Nellie? Hi!" I exclaimed. Nellie, surprised, jumped up, losing her place in the book.

"Oh. Hello, Rosie," she said, returning to her book.

"You certainly look…different," I commented.

"Me and my parents had a fight," was all she would say as an explanation. I don't know exactly how this led to her new look, but I could tell that she didn't want to elaborate. Liam didn't seem to want to talk either- he just stared at me, looking almost as nervous as Hugo and Lily did. I still couldn't figure out why he was always so nervous around me. Hugo and Lily were now talking animatedly with the two other girls in our compartment. Because there wasn't anything else better to do, I decided to try to find Scorpius and talk to him. As I went to leave the compartment, I was unaware that Hugo was following me.

Soon, I found Scorpius, sitting in between Blaine and Blair Carrow. Tamika Bletchley and Bertha Higgs were seated across from them. At that moment, Scorpius was attempting to count the number of Chocoballs that Blaine and Blair could stuff into their mouths at one time. Tamika and Bertha were eating their way through their own pile of Chocoballs as well, albeit much more slowly than Blaine and Blair were. As soon as the eating contest was over (Blaine was determined the winner, after Blair started turning a bright shade of purple) I walked over to Scorpius.

"What do you want?" he asked sourly. I knew this was going to be hard.

"Listen, about what happened before finals, I…"

"GET YOUR GRUBBY LITTLE HANDS OFF MY SWEETS!" shrieked Tamika, slapping Hugo's hand.

Now, normally, Hugo and I have what one would call a typical brother-sister relationship. At home, we often fight about trivial things, but always make up in the end. I don't like it when he joins forces with James and Al to put spiders in my slippers, when he knows I'm afraid of them, and he doesn't like when I spend too much time in the bathroom in the morning. A girl has to take time on her appearance, no? Alas, Victoire seems to be the only member of my family who agrees with me on that, so I often lose those battles.

Anyway, Hugo and I aren't usually the best of friends. But when Tamika yelled at him on the train, I quickly acted.

"HEY!" I shouted. "Don't talk to my brother that way!"

"I just wondered if I could have one…" Hugo tried to apologize, but Tamika cut him off.

"Well, you can't. I bought them with my own money. What, can you not afford to buy them yourself? If my mum was about to be fired over certain remarks that she said at a certain trial, I'd be careful about stealing sweets off other people."

This really sent me over the edge. Tamika was referring to a trial that Mum was present at concerning house-elf rights. Tamika's father, Miles Bletchley, was a member of the Wizengamot, (a position that he got mainly through bribery, Dad said) and didn't take too kindly to Mum saying that house-elves should stand up for themselves. While it wasn't true that Mum was going to get fired for her words- she was one of the most respected members of the Ministry, after all- it did make me angry when she said those things. I raised my wand to make Tamika think that I was going to curse her or something, when in reality I had absolutely no idea what would happen if we both started yelling spells on the train. Fortunately, the witch with the cart happened to come into the compartment at that very moment, obviously startled by the commotion.

"Boys! Girls! My, my, we're getting rowdy in here, aren't we? Anything off the cart?" The presence of more food seemed to calm all of us down, and after I paid for a bag of every flavor beans, I made my way back to my compartment, catching a look at Scorpius as I left. He didn't even meet my eyes, looking more interested at a cloud that was passing by out the window than the almost-fight that just occurred. It was going to be harder than I thought to go back to the way we were last year.

When we went back to our compartment with Liam, Lily, and Nellie, I related our run-in with Tamika to them- minus the part about me trying to talk to Scorpius, of course.

"That Tamika is such a brat!" Nellie remarked. "She never should have said that thing about your Mum."

"You should've called for me, Rosie- I would've punched her square in the jaw!" Liam exclaimed. Nellie and I looked at him with a weird expression on our faces.

"I mean…not like I'd ever hit a girl, but…if she was being mean to _you_, I'd…never mind," Liam shrugged.

"Why were you talking to all those mean kids, anyway?" Lily asked.

"Oh, I was trying to find your brothers," I lied. "I haven't seen them the whole time."

"They were just here," Liam said. "They said they were looking for you."

"Oh…we must have missed each other, then. I'll see them once we get to school."

"Speaking of school…Rosie, when will we be there?" Lily asked. I sighed.

"First you don't want to leave, and now you can't wait to get there? I can't believe you, Lily…we'll be there soon, I promise." As I talked to my brother and cousin about Hogwarts, I remembered how excited I was last year on the train. That was when Scorpius and I first met. Before, I couldn't believe the things Dad told me about him. But considering what had just occurred- how he had refused to acknowledge my existence- I was beginning to think that Dad had a point.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Payne, Theodora!" A very short, lean girl with silky crimson hair slowly placed the hat on her head. So far, nothing had gone amiss after we arrived at Hogwarts. Now we just had the sorting to get through. After the hat made Theodora a Ravenclaw, it was Lily's turn. Trembling, she put the hat on her head. Almost instantly, it proclaimed her to be a Gryffindor. We all cheered as she headed to our table.

"I'm so excited!" she exclaimed as "Quince, Evan" joined the Gryffindor table right after. "I was so nervous when I tried on the hat, I thought for sure I would be in another house and not be with all of you guys!"

"We're proud of you, Lily," James said. "Now hopefully Hugo will be made a Gryffindor as well, and then we'll be golden." Meanwhile, Lily was talking to some of her new friends: Nan Fernandez and Mellisa MacDonald, both of whom we met on the train. Conveniently, they were also both sorted into Gryffindor, so Lily continued talking to them at our table. After several minutes passed, it was about to be Hugo's turn. As soon as "Wagstaff, Arleen" headed over to the Slytherin table, Hugo set the hat on his head. It took a bit longer for him than it did for Lily, but eventually he was made a Gryffindor, like Lily. He joined us at the table soon after. If I craned my neck just so, I could see Scorpius at the Slytherin table. He was grinning and laughing with his friends. I sighed. I wished that I could sit at a table with just him, so that I could finally tell him that I honestly didn't mean what I said all those months ago about being in love with him. But now, it seemed like it was too late. After Professor McGonagall made her obligatory start-of-term speech, I started conversing with my cousins.

"What's this I hear about you and Tamika Bletchley on the train, Rosie?" James asked. News sure traveled fast around here.

"We got into a fight. She was saying some pretty bad things about my Mum- it really made me mad," I explained.

"Don't pay attention to her- she doesn't know what the hell she's talking about. Aunt Hermione's position in the Ministry is very much secure- you know that," James reminded me. "In the meantime, I don't want you hanging out with those Slytherins anymore. You have much more important things to do."

"It's not like I hang out with them _voluntarily_," I lied. "I just happened to bump into them on the train this one time." I didn't sound very convincing, but James seemed to take my explanation as fact and continued eating.

As of now, it seemed like I would have to wait until we were in the full swing of things before I would get a chance to talk to Scorpius alone. I just hope that, when I do finally talk to him, he will remember what fun we had during our first year.


	7. Loud and Fast and Clear

A/N: Mostly filler in this chapter, but I got to talk about Quidditch, which is always fun. Please try to review this story and give me feedback! Speaking of reviews, a huge thank you to squintsquad03, who reviewed the last chapter! PLEASE READ AND REVIEW THIS!

Chapter 7: Loud and Fast and Clear

After a couple months at Hogwarts, I was soon settling into the familiar rhythm I had once known. I had talked to Scorpius a couple days ago about wanting to meet up with him to explain some things, so I was now waiting for him to arrive at our usual meeting place. Finally, I spotted him walking down the hall and we entered the unused classroom together.

"I can't take long today, Rosie. I have a lot of homework that I want to finish up. Alone." Even though he sounded like he couldn't wait for our little meeting to be over, I was hopeful that I could persuade him otherwise.

"I'll make it quick then. I just wanted to tell you that I'm really sorry about what I said last year. I didn't mean for it to damage our friendship." I quickly looked to his face for a reaction after I said this, but he continued to look at me stoically.

"I know. I didn't think that you meant it that way. I just…needed to do some thinking, that's all."

"So…do you want to keep meeting like we did last year?" I asked, hoping he would say yes.

"Yeah…sure. I'd like that," he said, not sounding sure at all. I was confused.

"I mean, if you don't want to do it, that's fine with me, too," I corrected. "It's up to you."

"No, I want to, it's just…complicated, that's all. I want to still hang out with you, but it's hard to when everyone else is pulling me in the other direction."

"Believe me, I know. How about we just keep on hanging out like normal, and if we think it's too complicated, we'll stop," I decided.

"That seems fine to me. So," Scorpius said, trying to change the subject, "What are you doing for the Christmas holidays this year?" It was now November, so people had started making plans for what they were going to do for Christmas. I never did anything that extravagant, but it was nice to know that Scorpius was wondering what I would be up to.

"Oh…nothing, really. I'll just stay at Hogwarts, like I do every year. My grandmother always knits all of us these little sweaters...simple, really." Scorpius now looked embarrassed.

"You're probably going to be jealous of what I'm doing then. My family owns a private ski chalet up North, and we always go there for Christmas. The Carrows and the Bletchleys always go with us. It's great fun- the slopes are beautiful. We bewitch the skis so that we don't fall while we're on them- it's so much better that way. And there's always lots of peppermint hot chocolate to drink, and…" The place sounded wonderful. For once, I resented the fact that I was spending Christmas at Hogwarts. Why didn't my family have a ski chalet with peppermint hot chocolate?

"That sounds great. I wish I could come," I said.

"No, you don't. My father would kill me if he found out that I was inviting a Weasley to the Malfoy ski chalet." My face fell. I didn't expect Scorpius to actually invite me, of course- that would be unreasonable. I just wish that everything didn't have to always be connected back to our feuding families.

"So…I'll see you next week, at the usual time?" I asked.

"Actually, you'll see me before then. The Quidditch match is next week, remember?" I clapped my hand to my forehead.

"Oh, you're right! I can't believe I forgot! Well, I'll see you then."

"Yeah. Um, I'm probably not supposed to say this, but…good luck out there, Rosie." I smiled.

"You too. May the best team win."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

As I entered the girls dormitory after my meeting with Scorpius, I immediately heard a soft, muffled sound. After scanning the room for a quick second, I saw Nellie, sobbing into her pillow as she lay in bed. I normally wouldn't intrude, but Nellie was my good friend, and I had been wondering what was up ever since I saw her on the train. I slowly walked towards her.

"Nellie? What's wrong?"

"GO AWAY!" she shouted. Then she looked up at me. "Oh, it's you, Rosie. I thought it was Isabella again. I suppose you're wondering why I'm so upset." For just having been inconsolable a couple minutes ago, Nellie was acting incredibly rational.

"Yeah…unless you don't feel like talking to me about it."

"No, I guess I should. Rosie, you remember when I told you that I got into a fight with my parents over the summer?" I nodded.

"Well, my Mum still hasn't gotten over the fact that I'm a witch. She thought that I was just in a phase or something. I don't know why, but…" She paused, blowing her nose into her handkerchief. "She hasn't accepted me for who I am. Anyway, over the summer, she…she wrote a letter to Hogwarts, asking that I be pulled out and placed into a normal school!" Tears streamed down Nellie's face as she continued her story. "I ran away for about a week after that. I stayed at my old friend's house. I cut off and dyed my hair to try to disguise myself- like I thought that would ever work! The police found me anyway, and sent me back home, where Mum and Dad were livid. They weren't just mad that I ran away, though- McGonagall had sent a letter back saying that I was to stay at Hogwarts. That was the only good part of what happened," she explained. I didn't know what to say to all of that.

"Wow," I said. "That must have been…"

"Wait- you haven't heard the rest," she continued. "So, a couple weeks ago, I sent Mum a letter, apologizing, asking if I could come back home for Christmas so we could patch things up…and she said no! She told me…" Nellie's handkerchief was nearly soaked through with her tears by now. "She told me that I wasn't welcome at our house anymore, that I should go live with some of my freak friends!" Nellie was clearly upset by this news. I had never encountered a situation like this before, as most of my other friends had been born into the wizarding world, but I was determined to help Nellie's situation.

"Have you talked to McGonagall about all this?" I asked.

"No…I just got the letter today!" Nellie wailed.

"Well, maybe she'll have a solution. In the meantime, there's nothing wrong with staying at Hogwarts for Christmas- you did that last year, right?" I was trying my hardest to reassure Nellie, but there was little I could do.

"I know, but…I just wanted Mum and I to make up for Christmas!" I hugged Nellie, her tears streaming onto my robes.

"Nellie, it's ok," I said, even though I knew it wasn't. "You'll get through this."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A couple of days later, it was time for my first Quidditch match. Earlier in the year, both Al and I had made the team, as chasers. Both of us were ecstatic when we made the team, but now I had butterflies in my stomach as I lined up with the team in the locker room. Our captain and seeker, Guy Thruston, was now giving us a speech before the match.

"Now, I see that we have a few new faces here," he said, gesturing towards Al and I, "so I want to give you two a rundown of who we're facing today." He now turned towards a huge blackboard that was covered with diagrams that made no sense to Al and I, but the rest of the team seemed to understand.

"Rosie, Al, Jerri," Guy said, referring to us and the other chaser, a short, thin fourth year girl, "you three have the toughest job today, because you have to try to get the quaffle past Lenore Wagtail, the toughest player that Slytherin has. She's the captain and the first female player they've had on the team in centuries. She got quite a few penalties last year for unsportsmanlike conduct- she even set someone's broom on fire once! Anyway…" Suddenly, we heard a loud, booming voice coming from Slytherin's locker room.

"MEN! I want you to beat those Gryffindor slobs to a bloody pulp today! DO YOU UNDERSTAND?" That must have been Lenore.

"See what I mean?" Guy commented. "So, the chasers have the toughest job today, except for me, of course, 'cause I'm the seeker. Now, the next thing I'm going to say is specifically for me, Al, and James. We're all aware that Roxie Vulchanov is one of the finer specimens of womanhood to walk through the halls of Hogwarts. But please, can you keep your focus on the game and not her bloody commentary!" he exclaimed, staring directly at James.

"Just because I fell off my broom _one time_ last year doesn't mean that it had anything to do with her!" James protested.

"Whatever, just don't let it happen again! Carmella, most of the Slytherin chasers are rather daft, so you shouldn't really face that much of a challenge today. James and Sofia, you've looked pretty good in practice, so I don't see much trouble there. Let's beat those Slytherins today!" We then headed out onto the pitch, where the Quidditch referee, Oliver Wood, was waiting. Once a great player for Puddlemere United, a severe back injury sidelined him for several years. Now, he can still play, but definitely not as well as he used to. He often starts telling one of his old Quidditch stories, like the one where he was captain when Gryffindor won the Hogwarts tournament. Uncle Harry was on that team.

"Let's have a clean match," he said, staring directly at Lenore. "I don't want to call nearly as many penalties as I had to last year. All right, captains, shake hands." Lenore discreetly spit into her hand before giving Guy a bone-crushing handshake. Then, we all mounted our brooms as the balls were released into the air. The match had begun.

The play was loud, fast, and clear. Unlike James, Al, and Guy, I wasn't distracted by Roxie's commentating, but I had to admit that it was interesting.

"James Potter, with those beautiful green eyes of his, just whacks that bludger out of the path of Jerri Youdle- very good job, there," she said sultrily as James turned a bright side of red. "Oh, wait! Another bludger just hit James- he must have not seen that one coming, poor thing…" I wasn't focused on the commentary, but on how to get the quaffle past Lenore. Every time I had a chance, she would swiftly block it. I didn't know how she did it. Al was clearly trying his hardest too, but it seemed like we weren't going to score any points at all. Finally, Jerri caught us a break by scoring when Lenore wasn't looking, causing Lenore to lash out in a violent tirade of choice language. Luckily, Slytherin wasn't doing very well either- Guy was right in saying that their chasers seemed to have no idea what they were doing. Our keeper, Carmella Clogg, seemed to have no trouble guarding the rings.

Al and I seemed to be working well in the air together- I often knew intuitively when the quaffle was passed to me, even though I could barely see Al through the mess of other players in the air. Because of our good teamwork, we were able to score twice more, making the score 30-0 in favor of Gryffindor. Unfortunately, though, Carmella seemed to be tiring, as Slytherin scored twice after that. I knew that Guy was a far better seeker than Jimmie Elphick, the seeker for Slytherin, who had just made the team this year, so I was confident that our team would win.

Suddenly, I was struck by a wayward bludger, losing my grip on the quaffle in the process. While I didn't initially know who had lobbed it in the first place, Lenore's nearby shouting confirmed my suspicion.

"Great job out there, Malfoy! Knock her down!" As Scorpius sped past me, I thought I glimpsed a faint look of apology on his face, but it was hard to tell because we were moving so fast on our brooms. Just as I was beginning to right myself, a huge burst of cheering from the Gryffindor section informed me that Guy had caught the snitch and the game was over. As I flew down to join the rest of my teammates in celebration, I happened to catch a look at Scorpius, who mouthed "good job" to me before joining Lenore, who was yelling at him. I was glad that, in spite of hitting me with the bludger, he still cared about how I felt.

A/N:

Coming up: A split chapter! Peppermint hot chocolate! Christmas! OH MY!


	8. A very small sphere

A/N: With school starting tomorrow, the next update might not come as soon. Thanks to squintsquad03 and amortentiaaa for reviewing the last chapter! HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE! READ AND REVIEW!

Chapter 8: And how rich or poor, it's a very small sphere

_Rosie's POV_

Christmas was here once again. I awoke to a partially filled dormitory, as Isabella and Marie Kirke had both gone home for the holidays. For me, Nellie, and Tatiana Thomas, though, presents were piled high at the foot of our beds. Nellie seemed the most surprised out of all of us.

"Oh my God! I never expected to get presents at all this year! Who are all of these from?" Nellie exclaimed. Nellie didn't know that I had told Mum all about her plight in a recent letter. Even though I told her that she didn't have to, Mum said that she was sending Nellie a few presents for Christmas.

"Rosie, tell your Mum I say thanks! This is amazing!" I smiled, knowing that Nellie, too, was as happy as I was today. I got out of bed and started to unwrap my presents. First was the obligatory Weasley sweater that my grandmother made for everyone in the family. Mine was hot pink. Even though I protested every year that the color of my sweater clashed with my bright red hair, my sweater was still the same color. While I'm glad that my grandmother takes the effort to knit all of those sweaters every year, I really only wear mine on Christmas, so it's probably a waste of time anyway. In addition to several other gifts from various family members, there was also a note from my parents.

_Rosie darling,_

_Happy Christmas! We hope everything is going well for you and that you enjoy your presents. A word concerning your friend Eleanor- we've talked to McGonagall and you can let her know that, if she wishes, she's welcome to stay with us over the summer. She'd have to room with you, but I don't think you'll mind. Of course, if her mother gets some sense knocked into her, then that won't have to happen, but tell her that she's welcome to stay with us just in case. We miss you and hope you enjoy all of your presents!_

_Lots of love,_

_Mum and Dad_

I immediately ran to tell Nellie the good news, but it seemed that she had gotten a similar letter amidst her packages as well, as tears were beginning to well up in her eyes once again.

"Thank you…so much! I can't thank your family enough, Rosie- I'm going to have to send them a letter or something. This is the best Christmas present, right here," she said, gesturing to the letter. I was so glad that Nellie's situation had been worked out that I had forgotten to open up my last present. In addition to the sweater and several other gifts, there was one rather large present that had been partially shoved under my bed. I tore apart the wrapping and was surprised to see a rather old wizard chess set. A note from my father was stuck to the top of the box.

_Rosie-_

_This set was given to me by my grandfather, so handle it with care. It gave me endless amounts of enjoyment when I was in school- hope it does the same for you._

_Happy Christmas,_

_Dad_

Even though the set was several years old and the pieces didn't move like they used to, I was overjoyed with this present and couldn't wait to show it to my cousins and Hugo, who would definitely want to start playing as soon as possible. Nellie and Tatiana seemed happy with their gifts, too. Tatiana had received five new glitter exploding necklaces (they now came in sets, due to the fact that they, erm, exploded.) Nellie got a new, leather-bound diary- I don't know how Mum knew that Nellie loved to write. Delighted, I brought my new gifts down to the common room to show everyone else. James, Al, Hugo, and Lily were already there, wearing their sweaters. Immediately, James and Al pounced upon the wizard chess set, wanting to start a game right then and there. I pleaded with them not to be so rough with the pieces.

"Guys, Dad said that I had to handle the set with care!"

"Aw, Rosie, don't be such a worrywart. We're treating it fine," James said as several pieces spilled onto the floor of the common room, shouting in protest. I was about to tell them to be more careful when Liam Finnegan popped out from behind a chair, surprising me.

"Happy Christmas, Rosie!" he exclaimed nervously, holding out a small wrapped package. "I got you a present."

"Oh, you didn't have to do that!" I said as I unwrapped the present- a bag of every flavor beans.

"You don't like it?" Liam said, terrified.

"No, I do. It's fine, Liam," I said. Liam gave me a slight smile before disappearing once again. What a weird kid. I looked around the common room for something to do. James and Al were playing wizard chess, with Hugo looking on. Nellie was curled up in a chair, already starting to write in her diary. Tatiana was showing Lily her new necklaces. As for me, I ended up deciding on sitting by the fire, enjoying seeing everyone so happy at Christmastime.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_Scorpius' POV_

I awoke on Christmas morning to find a huge pile of presents under the towering Christmas tree at the ski chalet, most of them with my name on their tags. Tamika, Blaine, and Blair got presents, too, but I think I probably made out the best. In addition to a brand-new edition of The Beater's Bible, I also received a new broomstick- the Lightning Strike. Dad was able to pick up one of them before they were available in stores, so I was pretty sure that I would be the only one on the Quidditch team with one of them. I was extremely surprised, since I had just gotten a new broomstick last year.

"But there wasn't anything wrong with my old broomstick!" I protested.

"Are you saying that you don't _want_ a limited edition Lightning Strike broom? I had to personally contact the manufacturer to get it by Christmas, you know!" Dad threatened.

"No, I love it! Thank you so much!"

"That's better," Dad said, satisfied. I then went to sit down in one of the comfortable chairs by the picture window, where Tamika, Blaine, and Blair were comparing their gifts. Tamika was especially excited with her new winter coat, made of white rabbit fur. Blaine and Blair had already eaten half of the enormous box of chocolates that they received.

"So, Scorpius, how do you like my new coat? Doesn't it look absolutely stunning on me?" Tamika asked. Personally, I thought she looked like a giant marshmallow, but I wasn't about to say that, knowing her temper.

"You look great!" I lied.

"I knew you would say that," she replied, sipping from her mug of peppermint hot chocolate. "It's probably my favorite Christmas present."

"That hot chocolate looks good," I said.

"Why don't you get some yourself? Ampy!" she shouted, snapping her fingers as one of our house-elves (or, in this case, "chalet-elves", I guess) came running to her service. "Get Scorpius a mug of peppermint hot chocolate with extra marshmallows. AND MAKE IT SNAPPY!" Terrified, Ampy ran full speed through the kitchen doors, returning moments later with the hot chocolate. I had to admit, it _was_ very good.

"Are we going skiing again today?" I asked. After spending a full day on the slopes yesterday, I was eager to get back to the fun. Plus, I wanted to try out the new skis that I got for Christmas.

"Nah," Blaine said, stuffed. "Me and Blair want to finish our candy."

"Fine. Scorpius and I'll go then," Tamika said. "Hey, Scorpius, how's about you and me ski down Lover's Point after we finish this hot chocolate?" I wanted to go skiing, but not with Tamika, and certainly not down Lover's Point, which was a double black diamond run. Maybe lovers are supposed to be good skiers? I didn't know why Tamika wanted to go skiing with me anyway- she was terrible at it. I had to agree, though, or else she'd throw a huge temper tantrum.

"Yeah, I'll go with you," I said, dreading when we'd be out on the slopes alone.

"Yay! Oh Scorpius, I knew you'd say yes!" Tamika shrieked. As she ran to get her ski gear, I walked as slowly as possible to grab my skis. On my way, I was stopped by my father, who had a serious expression on his face.

"Your mother and I would like to talk to you in private, Scorpius. Follow me," he ordered. I had no idea what this was about. Had my father found out what Blaine, Blair, and I had done to those first-year Hufflepuffs? Did he know what me and Rosie were up to? In the lounge, my mother was waiting, her expression as grim as my father's.

"Scorpius, Angelica ran away last week," my father said. I breathed a sigh of relief, grateful that the news wasn't about Rosie.

"It's about time," I muttered under my breath.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?" my father shouted.

"Nothing, Dad. How did you know she was gone?" I asked.

"Well, we didn't hear her wretched cat anymore, and she took some of our gold. You're the only one that talks to her- do you know where she is?" he asked. Angelica is my sister. She's five years older than me, and from as early as I could remember, she had been my best friend. Mum and Dad absolutely adored her, always buying her the finest dresses and jewelry. To them, she was the perfect child. True, she had shown little aptitude towards magic, but my parents just figured that she was a late bloomer- until I, at the age of four, was already making plates of food that I didn't want to eat fall on top of my sister's head without moving a muscle. After that, they started to worry. When Angelica failed to receive a letter from Hogwarts when she turned eleven, their suspicions were confirmed. Angelica was a squib.

As one may imagine, my parents were outraged. They wrote to Hogwarts, insisting that the school must have made a mistake, but they knew the truth. Angelica was also very upset- she had always dreamed of going to Hogwarts and getting sorted into Slytherin like her parents. My parents were planning on kicking her out of our house, but I insisted on still being able to play with my sister. After many arguments, it was agreed upon that Angelica could stay, but she would be confined to her room and no one was to know of her existence apart from the family. You see, after my parents found out that Angelica was a squib, they told everyone else that she was dead- fell down a well, I think they said.

I still talked to Angelica after all this. Being young and immature, I initially didn't understand what all the fuss was about- she was still my sister, after all. Even after my parents horribly mistreated her and she took to talking to her pet cat, Miss Abby, I still would go up to her room to talk to her. When I left for Hogwarts, Angelica cried. I couldn't bear to imagine what had happened to her since then, with no advocate in the house. Even though she promised to write to me, I had received no letters since I left. Dad's announcement gave me hope that she had escaped to a better life.

"Well? Have you heard from her or not?" Dad asked again.

"No," I answered. Dad looked furious.

"Liar. I know she's told you of her plans- I can see it on your face. Well, if you won't talk, maybe this Veritaserum will do the trick," he said, pulling a vial out of his pocket. This infuriated my mother.

"Draco! He's only a boy! Where did you get hold of such a thing?"

"Your father happens to have some connections to the ministry, Scorpius. I can use this whenever I want, and when my son isn't telling the truth, I need to find out what he knows!" he shouted.

"Dad! Please, I haven't heard anything from her, I swear!" I pleaded. The look in my eyes- I was almost in tears- must have convinced him.

"Fine. But if I find out anything otherwise, there will be serious consequences. Understand?"

"Yes, father." Satisfied, my parents left the room.

I was telling the truth when I said I hadn't heard anything from Angelica. The week I returned to Hogwarts, however, a letter from "Ericka Senters" was waiting for me. Not recognizing the name, I opened the envelope cautiously.

_Scorpius-_

_This is Angelica. Please don't show this letter to Mum and Dad. I just wanted to let you know how I'm doing. As Mum and Dad have probably already told you, I ran away earlier this week. I was fed up with living in that hellhole. And yes, I did take some money with me- I wasn't about to starve. Me and Miss Abby are currently living in a flat in Hogsmeade. I was able to get a job at one of the shops there- most of the people here are more accepting of me than Mum and Dad ever were. I'd certainly love to see you again so we can talk more, but it's too dangerous right now. You can write a letter back to me, but be sure to use my new name. _

_Love,_

_Ericka _

Coming up: Not another split chapter, I'm afraid, but we're back at Hogwarts and things aren't how they used to be…


	9. We Hoped Things Would Turn Out Better

A/N: First off, I want to give a huge thanks to everyone who reviewed my last chapter. I got more reviews than I ever had for a single chapter- maybe y'all like split chapters? BIG THANKS go to squintsquad03, amortentiaaa, LupinTonksLove, DigiNinMon, Superrachelness, lilyscorpius, and AsanteSanaSquashBanana! This chapter isn't as happy, unfortunately, as Rose and Scorpius are entering a particularly nasty patch in their friendship. That's all I'll say. Oh, and I've updated my profile, so now you can all see the fanfics that I have planned in the future! Fun! READ AND REVIEW!

Chapter 9: We Hoped Things Would Turn Out Better

My second year at Hogwarts seemed to be proceeding as uneventfully as the first one. Even Scorpius and I seemed to be on better terms, now meeting once a week like usual. I focused most of the time on my studies, naturally, but it looked like everyone else was having a good year as well.

One thing I did notice was that Isabella had come home from Christmas with a huge stack of beauty supplies. From magical detangling combs to perfumes that smelled like the finest flowers, Isabella seemed ready to open a shop in the Gryffindor girl's dormitory. When I showed her my sweater, she dismissed it as nerdy and pointed out the obvious- that it clashed horribly with my hair. I didn't care much about her opinion, but it still hurt. She had begun to give every girl in our year "makeovers" with her new products, despite never having had any experience in styling hair. After seeing how some of her styles turned out, I was skeptical about asking Isabella for beauty advice. Everyone else seemed to love getting their hair styled, though, so I kept quiet about it.

Now that it was nearly Valentine's Day, Isabella was busier than ever, as many girls wanted to have their hair and makeup done for their boyfriends. Of course, most of us second-years couldn't care less about boys at this point, but, to my surprise, several girls in the older years had taken advantage of Isabella's beauty parlor as well.

As for me, I knew enough by now not to mention the word "love" ever again around Scorpius. Still, I thought it would be nice if I styled my hair differently once in a while. Currently, it normally just sat on my head, flying out in all directions in a bright red, curly, bushy mass. I'd tried to straighten it with one of Victoire's magical hair straightening liquid, but even that only made it straight for a day at most. I knew better than to go to Isabella for a new look, though. I would rather try something out myself first. So, one day, I gathered my hairbrush and went to the girl's bathroom, because there was a mirror, and attempted to style my hair.  
I soon realized, though, that I had no idea what I was doing. My hair began to look even worse as I brushed it. Defeated, I walked back to the common room, where I found Isabella hard at work, rolling Nan Fernandez's hair into pin curls.

"Rosie! I was just looking for you!" she exclaimed, distracting herself from her styling. "I have got to do your hair for Valentine's Day! I mean, it's nice the way you have it, but it's just so…boring, you know? It needs some…" She paused, continuing to pull at Nan's hair as Nan shouted in hysterics. "It needs some pizzazz, you know?"

"Um, I don't know," I said, hesitant. While I knew that I might be making a mistake, I figured that I probably wouldn't do a very good job if I tried to experiment with my hair myself. "I guess so."

"Great! I'll even do it for free," Isabella commented.

"I thought you did everyone's hair for free," I said, confused.

"Don't tell the first-years that!" Isabella whispered into my ear. "I charge them." While I found this a bit unfair, I didn't say a word. As Isabella finished with Nan's hair, she promptly grabbed a chunk of my hair into her first.

"Hmm…what can we do here?" Isabella wondered. "How about we try something fun? No offense, Rosie, but your hair has stayed the same ever since I met you. It's time for a change."

"Well, I do tend to want a more low-maintenance style…" I admitted. Isabella soon cut me off.

"Nonsense! What you need is a makeover, Rosie, and I'm here to deliver it. It's just like I told your cousin: just because you have ugly-looking glasses doesn't mean you have to feel ugly," she commented.

"Wait- you told Lily she had ugly-looking glasses?" I was shocked that she would do something like that.

"Well, isn't it obvious? Those things are huge- they look like a pair of targets on her face. She has got to get her vision corrected- then she'll have all the boys after her. What? It's not like you don't have anything wrong with you either. Look at those huge rabbit teeth of yours!" By now, I was starting to regret my decision to have Isabella give me a makeover if she was going to keep on insulting me.

"Isabella, I'm not letting you cut one inch of my hair if you insist on pointing out every flaw in my personality!" I shouted. Isabella wasn't fazed by my outburst in the slightest.

"Calm down! I was just suggesting areas that needed improvement, that's all. But when I'm done with you, your hair will look great. Just trust me, ok?" Sighing, I let Isabella begin to style my hair. How bad could it be?

Several minutes later, when Isabella held up the mirror for me to view my new look, I found out the answer to that question. I don't know how she managed to muck up my hair that badly, but apparently she was able to turn my once long, flowing curls- what was left of them, anyway- into a monstrosity. I was practically bald. My head looked like a red squirrel, with hair sticking up every which way like a punk rocker. In short, I was extremely irritated.

"Isabella! What did you do!" I shouted in horror.

"I know you didn't exactly ask for it, but I just love this look on you! It looks just like the lead singer for the Weird Sisters!" she exclaimed.

"Who also happens to be a man! What were you thinking? I look horrible!"

"No, you don't. Trust me. And if you don't like it…maybe you can wear a hat?" I was about to yell at Isabella again when Nellie burst into the room.

"Rosie, I was looking everywhere for you! Where…," Nellie then caught sight of my new look. "What happened to your hair?" she laughed.

"You don't like it either? I must be losing my touch," Isabella reasoned. I ran away from her in a huff and walked to Nellie, relating the whole debacle to her once we were in our dormitory.

"What are you going to do now?" Nellie asked.

"I don't know. I'll probably just wear a hat, like Isabella suggested. Why did I ever let her cut my hair in the first place? I hoped it would turn out better than this!" I lamented.

"I wouldn't worry about it too much, to be honest with you. When I was six, I got chewing gum stuck in my hair- we had to cut it out with scissors. I looked horrible! After a while, though, it grew back. Yours isn't nearly as bad as mine was. Besides, it's not like you have any boys to impress, right?" I giggled after she said this, knowing in my mind how very wrong she was.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

As it turned out, my haircut was just the beginning of a terrible week. Lily had contracted a cold earlier in the week, which she passed onto me. Now, in addition to having an ugly haircut, my nose was bright red. I had hoped that my cold would clear up by today, Valentine's Day, but it was still as worse as ever. Today was the day that Scorpius and I were supposed to meet to study, but I was having such a bad day that hearts and flowers were the last things on my mind.

As I made my way to the classroom where Scorpius and I met, it occurred to me that Guy had scheduled an extra Quidditch practice today, in preparation for our upcoming game against Hufflepuff. I considered going for a few minutes, but after sneezing several times in succession decided against it. I'd been to every other practice- they wouldn't miss me just this once.

When I first saw Scorpius, who was already sitting at a desk at the front of the room, I couldn't wait to sit down next to him. The day had been terrible so far, and I needed to tell someone about it.

"Hey, Scorpius," I said.

"Rosie? What happened to your hair?" he asked. I had forgotten that Scorpius hadn't seen my haircut yet. Up until now, I had hidden my hair under a huge black hat, lest anyone see the damage. I must have forgotten to put my hat back on.

"Oh, this," I said, gesturing up at what was left of my hair. "Isabella did it. I know it's horrible, but it'll grow out eventually. I hope," I added, fully prepared for him to make some snide comment.

"Oh, it's not _horrible_. It's just…different."

"You're just saying that!"

"No, I mean it. You look just like the lead singer from the Weird Sisters!" he exclaimed.

"So I've heard. I still look terrible, though. My nose is all red, I fell out of bed this morning and bumped my head on the cabinet, my hair looks like a squirrel…" I trailed off when I noticed he wasn't listening. After I finished, he started to laugh. _"Great," I thought. "Now he really knows what a fool I am."_

"Rosie…do you honestly think I care about all that? You look fine, trust me." I was amazed that he was being so understanding.

"Well…ok," I said, relieved.

"Hey, don't you have to be at Quidditch practice right now?" Scorpius asked, changing the topic.

"How do you know about that?" I asked.

"Lenore wanted me to spy on you guys during your practice today- she makes me do all of her dirty work because I'm the youngest on the team," he explained. I was shocked. I mean, I knew that Lenore often used dirty tactics, but I didn't think that she would stoop this low.

"But you told her no, right?"

"She kinda threatened me into saying yes, but I'm obviously here and not watching you play, right? I figured I'd probably get caught anyway if I actually went though with it. Besides, I was supposed to have a Gobstones tournament tonight with Blaine and Blair, and…" Scorpius was cut off when we heard a small commotion outside the door. Normally, our weekly sessions went uninterrupted, as the small classroom that we met in was never in use. I had no idea what was making all that noise, but somehow I knew that it was something bad.

I slowly opened the door with Scorpius behind me, only to come face to face with James and the rest of the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Needless to say, James was shocked to see who I was with.

"Rosie! What the hell are you doing here? You know Guy scheduled an extra Quidditch practice tonight, right? Where were you?" James yelled.

"I…I…" I stammered.

"And who's this with you?" James asked, gesturing towards Scorpius. "I go and look all over Hogwarts for you, only to find you snogging Scorpius Malfoy with a rat's nest on your head! Have you forgotten what I told you on your very first day here?"

"I…I…" Just as I thought things couldn't get any worse, Blaine, Blair, and Tamika came running down the hall.

"Hey! What's everybody yelling about!" Tamika shrieked at first. Then her eyes met Scorpius and I.

"Scorpius! Are you meaning to tell me that this is where you go when you 'study'? Since when do you hang out with a _Weasley_? She's such a freak!" she screamed. Scorpius and I froze with equal expressions of fear on our faces. I'll admit that it was naïve of us to think that we could continue this ruse for so long, but we didn't expect to be found out this soon. I tried to speak, but was drowned out by the shouts of James and Tamika.

"Wait until your father hears about this!" James shouted.

"Honestly, Scorpius, I thought you had better taste than _her_!" Tamika shrieked. Finally, Scorpius looked as if he was about to speak. I was prepared for him to defend me and tell all of his friends our secret.

"You're right, Tamika," he said. I was confused. This was not what I was expecting at all. "She's a freak. She wanted to study with me- like I was going to let that happened. I was just telling her that she wouldn't be receiving any help from me, that's for sure." Tears ran down my face as I began to comprehend what he had just said. Why would he betray me after all our months of friendship? It didn't make sense. Not knowing what else to, I ran. Normally, I was terrible at sprinting, but today I was fueled by something more than adrenaline. Now I knew how Victoire must have felt when she and Teddy had that fight. But I didn't really love Scorpius…did I?


	10. Things don't get better

A/N: Huge thanks go to all of my reviewers for my last chapter: maraudergirl02, Superrachelness, squintsquad03, MsRoseWeasley, and hondagirl! The reviews really keep me going and let me know that I'm doing a great job! Thanks! Also, if you frequent or FictionAlley, I'm posting this story up there as well, to get more readers. The C2 Community has also added several new fics, so if you want some more Rose/Scorpius, then head on over there! Also, I added a new poll on my info page that asks you what story I should write next! Please vote if you haven't already. And…I think that's it. READ AND REVIEW!

Chapter 10: Things don't get better

After that tragic day, I wondered how I was ever going to even look at Scorpius again. Eventually, though, I pulled myself together. I wasn't going to let a boy ruin my time at Hogwarts, was I? Still, it was hard to see him every day in the halls, laughing with Tamika, Blaine, and Blair, knowing that he was having just as much fun with them as he once did with me.

As one would expect, James was furious with me after he found me with Scorpius, and immediately demanded an explanation. I wasn't about to tell him that Scorpius and I had been meeting once a week, but I didn't go so far as to insult Scorpius as he did with me. I just told James that Scorpius and I being together was purely coincidental. He didn't seem to buy that one, however.

"Come on, Rosie! What are the odds of both of you being together in an empty classroom like that? You must have had a reason for being there!" he questioned.

"I told you! I hadn't talked to him before that day, I swear!" I lied, almost in tears.

"All right, if you insist. But I'm still writing to your Mum and Dad about this," he said.

"No! You can't!" I cried.

"Why? It shouldn't be a problem if that was the only time you'd talk to him, right?" I groaned. Sometimes James could be so devious.

"Fine then. You can write a letter to them. See if I care!" I shouted, storming off to the Gryffindor girls' dormitory. Needless to say, James did write that letter, and the reply that I got from my parents wasn't that friendly. In fact, several days later, at breakfast, a scarlet smoking envelope was dropped onto the table right in front of me. Having seen Victoire get one last year from Uncle Bill after her grades started took a turn for the worse, I knew that this was a Howler. To make matters worse, McGonagall was walking right past the Gryffindor table when the Howler landed.

"Rose Weasley, getting a Howler? Now there's something I thought I'd never see," she remarked as my face turned bright red. "Open it quickly, dear, the alternative is much worse. Try not to make a habit out of it." Trembling, I opened the corner of the envelope, prepared for the worse. Almost immediately, I heard my father's voice shouting throughout the Great Hall as nearly every student stared.

"Rose Mirabelle Weasley! What's this I hear about you and Scorpius Malfoy? Didn't I tell you to stay away from him? You deliberately disobeyed me, Rose, and if it happens again, you need to expect serious consequences! Your Mum and I are both very proud of all the work you're doing in school, but if we hear about any more funny business, you'll be in more trouble than just a Howler! Understand?" After his tirade was over, I slunk down low into my seat, embarrassed. Well, I guess my goal of not letting the whole school find out about the incident was officially not going to happen. For weeks afterward, I was pestered with rude questions, especially from the Slytherin girls, who were absolutely vile.

"So, are you and Scorpius going out?" Julianne Flint would ask as I walked to Charms class. I usually just kept my head down and ignored them, but sometimes it was too hard, especially when Nellie was with me.

"Hey, Rosie, what's that on your head?" Hollie Harper, a tall, graceful Slytherin girl in James's year, taunted as Nellie and I made our way to the Great Hall for breakfast. "No wonder Scorpius ran away from you!" Nellie grew particularly incensed at this remark, even though I had told her repeatedly that the teasing didn't bother me.

"Don't talk to my friend that way!" Nellie shouted back at Hollie, brandishing her wand.

"Oh, the little mudblood is defending her friend! How sweet," Hollie mocked. "Let's see how you handle this!" Hollie then shouted a curse that caused Nellie to grow an alarming amount of facial hair, which I thought was a bit juvenile, but still cruel nonetheless. Unfortunately, though, I didn't know the countercurse, so I just had to stand there while Nellie's new beard covered her face. More students were crowding around us now, laughing hysterically. Luckily, Professor Quirke, the Transfiguration teacher, happened to walk by a couple minutes later and save Nellie even more embarrassment after she uttered the countercurse. To make things even better, she took 10 points from Slytherin after finding out what Hollie did, which, while pleasing me, incensed Hollie even more. Nellie and I ran as fast as we could to the Gryffindor common room before Hollie could do any more damage. Once we got there, Nellie was a mess.

"Oh my God, Rosie, that was probably the most embarrassing moment of my whole entire life! The whole school probably saw!" Obviously, Nellie was exaggerating, but she was definitely upset.

"Oh, it wasn't the whole school, Nellie," I reassured. "Most people probably were in their classes."

"Well, everyone that _mattered_ saw!" she lamented. "All those Slytherin girls, Isabella, Stuart Creevey…" I was confused as to why she mentioned this last name- Stuart was a third year that liked to hang out with James and his friends. I didn't think that Nellie knew him that well at all. Unless…

"Stuart Creevey? You don't fancy him, do you?" I asked. Nellie blushed.

"Well, I don't know if you would say that I _fancy_ him, but I just love how funny he is! And I like his hair, too- he pulls off that messy look really well. Plus, at breakfast yesterday, he asked me to pass the rolls!" she exclaimed with an excited look on her face.

"What does that have to with anything?" I asked.

"Well, he didn't ask just_ anyone_ to pass the rolls. He could've asked Evangelina, or Anastasia- they're way prettier than me, anyway- but he asked _me_!" Nellie seemed to think that this was important, but I still wasn't seeing it.

"Nellie, you're making too much out of this. Stuart probably didn't notice. I have a much bigger problem on my hands, what with everyone thinking that Scorpius and I were doing all sorts of things a couple weeks ago," I said, exasperated. "I wish everyone would just leave me alone!" I walked out of the common room, wishing that everything would be back to the way it once was.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Soon, the last day of my second year at Hogwarts was here. The backlash from the incident with Scorpius had almost died down, though I was still finding globs of Drooble's Best Blowing Gum stuck in my hair- which was starting to grow back to its normal style- by the Slytherins.

As I packed up my stuff on the last day, everyone around me was reminiscing about the year gone by. I had to admit, a lot had happened over the past year. Hugo and Lily had started their education. I played in my first Quidditch match. I got the worst haircut of my life. And I grew even closer to Scorpius- but now I was thinking that all of that was in vain. If all the time I spent with him only led to awkwardness, was it even worth pursuing his friendship anymore?

I thought about that for a second. Both of us had gone through a lot in our time at Hogwarts, but, overall, I wouldn't be able to imagine forgoing our weekly meetings. Sometimes it was nice to get to know someone who wasn't a Gryffindor, for once. While I pondered this, I listened to Isabella and Marie Kirke converse. They had gotten into a fight several weeks before over some trivial matter and hadn't spoken to each other since then. Needless to say, it had been a pretty tense environment in our dormitory after that. But now, it sounded like they were reconciling.

"So you're not mad at me?" Marie said.

"Of course not! Why would I be? Just because you spilled orange juice on me at breakfast a couple weeks ago? I'm all over that," Isabella answered.

"But you said that it got all over your new robes and that you never wanted to see me again!" Marie countered.

"Yeah, but that was before I learned how to perform the stain-remover spell. I didn't care at all after that."

"So then why didn't you talk to me?" Marie asked.

"Oh, that…I don't remember why, actually. I thought you were the one who was deciding not to talk to me!" Both of them giggled and hugged. After seeing how well Isabella and Marie resolved their dispute, I decided that I should try to patch things up with Scorpius as well. What's the worst that could happen? I mean, he could decide that he doesn't want anything to do with me, but at least we will have talked it out first. Besides, I would rather know how Scorpius felt about things than wonder all summer about it. I was determined to talk to him before I left. I had tried talking to him at the End-Of-Term feast yesterday, but he was surrounded by his friends the whole time and I thought it would be awkward to walk down the Great Hall to the Slytherin table just to talk to him.

After my bags were packed, I rushed down to try to find Scorpius in the sea of students that were leaving at the same time. Initially, Hugo and Lily stuck to me like glue, but eventually I had to tell them to go away. I had to talk to Scorpius alone.

Finally, I was able to find Scorpius. As always, he was surrounded by the rest of the Slytherin students of our year, with Blaine and Blair acting as his wannabe bodyguards. At first, I was nervous, and wondered why I was even doing this. I should just do what would make my parents happy: spend my time with Liam Finnegan or some other boy that's not a Malfoy and forget everything that Scorpius and I did. But I knew that if I didn't talk to Scorpius now and sort through things that I'd be thinking about him all summer, which was definitely not something that I wanted to do. Slowly but surely, I brought my courage up enough to talk to him.

"Scorpius," I said, nervously. "We need to talk." I had intended for those words to be spoken in a more commanding and assertive way, but when I actually said them, I sounded more like a mouse.

"What do you want?" he replied smugly. I could tell from the tone of his voice that this wasn't going to go well.

"I…I just wanted to talk to you…about some…things," I said, still tense. "Preferably alone, but if you want to do it here, that's fine too. Whatever you want." That last part spilled out of my mouth at a lightning-quick rate, almost like I wanted to get it over with as soon as possible, which I guess I did. Blaine and Blair looked like they were about to eat me alive as they waited for Scorpius's response.

"You go ahead, guys," Scorpius said, gesturing to Blaine, Blair, and Tamika. "This'll be quick." As Scorpius slowly made his was towards me, I forgot all of what I had planned out to say in my mind. Whatever confidence I used to have around him had totally melted away.

"Listen, Scorpius, I know what happened a couple months ago was hard, but I was just wondering if it was possible for us to get past that. I mean, it'll be different, sure, but I really enjoyed what we had and I don't want to…" Scorpius interrupted me.

"ROSIE! Grow up!" he yelled. I was dumbfounded. I thought he would have reacted a bit better than this. Regaining my composure, I tried again.

"But I just thought that maybe we could…"

"For God's sake! Why can't you understand that it's over, Rosie! In fact, I wouldn't even say that we had anything in the first place. And in case you were wondering, I meant every word I said that day! You can't possibly be naïve enough to think that we can just go back to the way we were! It's complicated! No, I don't want to get past what happened. It _needed_ to happen. We needed someone to tell us that what we were doing wasn't right!" At this point, all of the calm that I exuded before was gone. I was now on the verge of tears. I was determined not to fall down crying in front of Scorpius like a baby, but if he kept on going at the rate he was, it seemed like I didn't have many other options. It seemed like the whole school was watching us argue, something that neither of us had planned on.

"Scorpius, listen to me!" I pleaded.

"No! _You_ need to listen to _me_ for once! Listen right now: I don't want to see you ever again, Rose Weasley!" Scorpius stormed off to join his friends, who applauded his performance. I, on the other hand, was a wreck. I tried to find someone I knew in the crowd of students who were now heading towards the Hogwarts Express, but I was lost in the group of students, all of whom seemed to be laughing at me.

Finally, I spotted Liam Finnegan. While I had been hoping to see one of my relatives or Nellie, Liam would do for now. As we stepped onto the train and into a compartment, Liam attempted to start a conversation.

"Rosie? What's wrong?" he asked. I breathed a sigh of relief. He must have not seen the episode with Scorpius a couple minutes ago, for some reason.

"Oh…nothing," I lied. Even though Liam looked as nervous as I did when I was with Scorpius, he was still a comforting presence. As we sat down in a compartment on the train, he turned and looked at me.

"Rosie? I'm going to miss you over the summer," he said. I smiled. To tell you the truth, I was probably going to miss him, too, and all of the other friends I had made. I would be with Nellie over the summer, though- it seemed that her parents were still not letting her come back to her house, so she took us up on our offer to stay with our family over the summer. I was excited that she would be staying with us- it would be like having a sister, I hoped.

As I watched the English countryside pass by out the window of the train, I thought about what Scorpius had said to me. Maybe he was right. Maybe it would be better if we didn't see each other again. It certainly would be easier. But somehow that didn't seem right to me. Somehow, I knew that there was a way that we could be friends without having to hide it. But it would take time. I shouldn't have expected Scorpius to be willing to resolve our conflict so easily. Sometimes things don't get better as quickly as you thought.

END OF PART 2

Coming up next: A split chapter! Hogsmeade! Relatives! OH MY!

Some chapter-specific notes: Stuart is Dennis's kid, in case you haven't figured it out already. Also, if you were disappointed with the lack of romance/resolution in this chapter- don't worry, this isn't the end of the story yet! I have so much more planned, it isn't even funny. More romantic plotlines will follow, I promise.


	11. I'm Ok

A/N: Wow, this was the fastest I've ever written a chapter! Also, this is the LONGEST chapter I've written for this fanfic, oddly enough. I'm pretty proud of it. As always, I need to thank all the reviewers I got last time- squintsquad03, aussiesheila47, Pottermaiac666, hondagirl, Maggie Granger Weasley, Sydelle Rein, and kelly! This chapter starts Part 3 of the story. Because y'all liked the split chapter so much last time, I did it again for this chapter. Let me know what you think! READ AND REVIEW!

Part 3: It Satisfies My Needs

Chapter 11: I'm Ok

_Rose's POV_

As I started my third year at Hogwarts, many things changed. First, two more of my cousins started their first year at Hogwarts- Dominique and Fred. Dominique was Victoire's younger sister, but, unlike Victoire, she was quite the tomboy. She hated styling her hair extravagantly the way that Victoire did, always wearing it in a simple ponytail. Dominique also didn't have a group of girls following her around at all times like Victoire did, either- she preferred to hang out with Fred and his guy friends, playing pickup games of Quidditch in the backyard. Needless to say, this didn't please Aunt Fleur at all, who constantly had to tell Dominique to act like a lady and not belch at the dinner table. She had been sorted into Gryffindor, like me.

Fred was Aunt Angelina and Uncle George's first child, and was good friends with Dominique. He was very mischievous and, like Dominique, loved to play Quidditch. He was also sorted into Gryffindor.

Also, because I was a third year, I got to choose some new classes to take. At first, I didn't know which one to choose, as they all seemed so fascinating. I didn't want to be an overachiever like my Mum and attempt to take every elective at once, but it was a hard decision. I finally decided on Ancient Runes, Care of Magical Creatures, and Arithmancy, which were all going very well.

There weren't many changes among my group of friends, though Nellie and I had grown closer than ever over the summer holiday. We'd often whisper secrets to each other late at night, giggling. And as for Scorpius, well, it seemed pretty clear to me what he felt about our friendship. I was ok with how I was at the moment. I had friends, family, and good grades to count on. I didn't need to add any complications.

The change that I was most happy about, however, was that, as a third year, I was finally allowed to visit Hogsmeade. Besides enjoying the succulent sweets at Honeydukes, which was always fun, I got to visit most of my family there as well. Uncle George opened up a second Weasley's Wizard Wheezes store there a couple years back, where Zonko's used to be, and he and Aunt Angelina now lived in a flat above the shop. Most teenagers, I'm sure, would want to stay as far away from their extended family as possible, but I loved staying connected to them.

In fact, this Saturday was the second time that the third years had been allowed to visit Hogsmeade this year, and I was taking up this opportunity to buy some things and visit my family. After Nellie and I feasted on some fudge from Honeydukes, we walked into Weasley's Wizard Wheezes to visit my family and pick up some items that Fred and Dominique had requested, probably for use on some of their classmates that they didn't like.

The first person we saw when we walked in was my cousin, Roxanne. Now five years old, she loved it when I would stop by.

"Rosie!" she squealed, her tiny arms enveloping me in a hug. "You're here!"

"Hi, Roxanne! Why are your hands so sticky?" I had noticed that her hands were covered in a yellow paste while she was hugging me.

"I don't know. Do you want to see my toy broom?" Roxanne asked, quickly changing the subject. I knew she wasn't telling me the whole story.

"Not so fast. What about your hands? Come on, you can tell me," I reassured.

"Ok, but don't tell Mummy and Daddy!" she whispered. "I was trying to get a cookie from the cookie jar on top of the shelf in the kitchen, but then I fell. I put on some of the stuff that Daddy always puts on my bruises, though, and now I'm all better!" I giggled. Roxanne must've put on too much of the Bruise-Remover Paste. I had to hand it to her- she was quite a resourceful little kid.

"Come on, Rosie! I wanted to show you my toy broom, remember?" Roxanne exclaimed, running to the back of the shop. As I followed her, struggling to keep sight of her small body, I ran into several boxes of magical fireworks that were on display. The boxes fell to the ground, some of them opening, illuminating the shop with brightly colored lights. Of course, my first instinct was to try to clean up the mess, but I was stopped by a tall, blonde employee that looked like she had seen better days. Her robes were tattered and torn, and I probably could've counted ten various scars and bruises on her small frame. Even though I had never seen her before, she looked incredibly familiar.

"I'll get that, miss," she said as she began to stack the unopened boxes up again.

"No, I was the one that caused all this, I'll do it," I insisted. But before I could begin to help her, I heard my Uncle's voice.

"Rose! Is that you? So, you've come to visit your dear Aunt and Uncle, eh? Come here and give me a hug!" As I walked away from the spilled fireworks to hug Uncle George, I noticed that the employee I had encountered was picking up the fireworks by hand and not by magic. How odd.

"Ericka! It's time for your break, sweetie," Aunt Angelina said, addressing the employee. "I'll take care of this." Ericka seemed positively overjoyed as she walked out of the shop, followed by a small tabby cat.

"Nice girl," Aunt Angelina remarked as she quickly fixed the firework display with magic. Then, she spotted me. "Rose! How are you? Are you and your friend having a good time?"

"I'm fine, Aunt Angelina. I'm sorry about what I did to the fireworks back there," I apologized.

"Oh, that was you? I thought that was Roxanne, fooling around again. Don't worry about it. Ericka was already cleaning it up," Aunt Angelina said.

"Thanks for being so understanding. Listen, Fred wanted me to pick up some Canary Creams while I was here- I don't know who he intends to use them on, but it seemed pretty urgent."

"That's my boy! Here, you can have five of them for free- family discount!" Uncle George exclaimed.

"George! Shouldn't we be discouraging that type of behavior in our children?" Aunt Angelina questioned.

"Oh, what's wrong with him having a little fun? He's doing fine in school, isn't he, Rose?"

"Yeah, of course," I lied. I figured that now would be a bad time to tell them about how Fred received a detention after setting Ilene Baddock's hair on fire.

"See? What did I tell you? You girls run along now- I'm sure you want to explore some more," Uncle George said. After saying our goodbyes, Nellie and I walked out of the shop.

"Your family is so nice!" Nellie remarked as we went to join some other students.

"You can talk! I wouldn't have known it- you were positively silent while we were in the shop a couple minutes ago!" I exclaimed.

"I'm sorry. It's just…whenever I see you with your family, I think about mine. I sent another letter to my Mum yesterday, but I doubt she'll reply. I don't even know why I bother anymore." It hurt me to see Nellie so sad.

"Oh, Nellie, I'm sure she'll come to her senses eventually," I reassured. "And you're always welcome to stay with us again, like you did last summer. That was so much fun, remember?"

"Yeah, I guess you're right. I'm ok where I am right now." As Nellie and I prepared to leave Hogsmeade, I echoed her statement. Even though things weren't exactly the same as they were last year, I was ok.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_Scorpius's POV_

I always liked visiting Hogsmeade- it was another opportunity to spend time with my friends and just have fun instead of studying for another Arithmancy test. This Saturday, though, I was especially excited to visit. After not hearing from Angelica since her first letter to me, I received another letter about a week ago.

_Scorpius-_

_It's Angelica again. Listen, since you're a third year now and can visit Hogsmeade, I think that now would be the perfect time for us to meet up with each other. I usually have a break at around three in the afternoon on Saturdays, so it will be perfect. The next time you go to Hogsmeade, meet me at the Three Broomsticks. I'd love to talk to you. _

_Love,_

_Ericka_

Of course, I jumped at the chance to see my sister again. The day we were to visit Hogsmeade, I was both excited and nervous. While I really wanted to catch up with Angelica (or Ericka, as she was calling herself now), part of me wondered if we had anything in common now. I put that thought to the back of my mind, though, hoping that it would be a rewarding experience.

As I walked through the streets of Hogsmeade with Blaine, Blair, Tamika, and the rest of my friends, I wondered what I was going to talk to Angelica about. Certainly, plenty had changed since we last saw each other, which was the day before I was to leave for Hogwarts. Tears were streaming down Angelica's face as she begged me not to leave her. That was probably the only time I regretted going to Hogwarts, as it left Angelica prone to even more poor treatment.

I pictured telling Angelica all about how my studies were going (very well, except for Arithmancy, which was a nightmare). She'd probably want to hear about my friends, too, so I'd be sure to mention how well Blaine, Blair, Tamika, and I were getting along. And as for Rose, well, I didn't picture bringing that up in front of her. I was finished with Rose. Our friendship, or whatever you'd like to call it, was officially over. So what if I hurt her feelings? The girl needed to know the truth. But other than that, I was ok with how I was at the moment. I didn't need any more complications.

The tricky part of the afternoon was going to be breaking away from Blaine and Blair, who wanted to spend the whole time swallowing mouthfuls of chocolate at Honeydukes, and Tamika, who had informed me that she wanted to have some tea with me at Madame Puddifoot's.

"Listen, guys, I have to meet a friend soon at the Three Broomsticks," I told them. Blaine and Blair just shrugged their shoulders and headed off to Honeydukes by themselves, but Tamika looked positively crushed.

"But I thought you were going to have tea with me!" Tamika whined.

"Next time, Tamika. This is important." Tamika stormed off in a huff, presumably to go gossip with her friends instead. Nervously, I walked into the Three Broomsticks, wondering if Angelica would be there and if I would recognize her. I didn't spot her at first. What if she had forgotten? I checked the silver watch that my father had given me that summer. Three o'clock exactly. Where could she be? I scanned the place again, thinking that I must have missed her the first time. Finally, I spotted her. She didn't look at all like she did when I last saw her. Her long, blonde hair seemed to be covered in soot, as if she walked into the middle of a fireworks show. She also looked defeated, almost, even though I knew she must be happy to see me. As always, her cat was curled up in a ball at her feet. I walked over to the table where she was sitting, and as soon as she saw me, she perked right up.

"Scorpius!" she exclaimed, giving me a huge hug. "I missed you so much!"

"I missed you, too," I said.

"So, how are you doing? It's my break from work right now, so I thought I'd try to meet you here. It's been so long since I've had anyone to talk to except for Miss Abby here, and, well, it's hard to have an engaging conversation with someone who won't talk back." I chuckled. Soon, we ordered two mugs of butterbeer and were conversing on various topics. I told her all about how I helped Slytherin beat Gryffindor in our Quidditch match last week by lobbing a bludger straight at Gryffindor's seeker as he was about to catch the snitch. She, in turn, didn't have as much to say about what she was doing, but I could tell that she loved hearing about what I was doing. After I finished recounting a prank that Blaine and Blair had played on some unsuspecting first-year Hufflepuffs, she asked me another question.

"I know about Blaine, Blair, and Tamika, but do you have any other friends? Any _girls_?" she hinted suggestively. That final question took me by surprise, but I tried to play it cool.

"No, of course not. I mean, I do have other _friends_, but as for _girls_...not much else, besides Tamika, that is." I was violently blushing when I said this, but I hoped that Angelica didn't notice.

"Right. You always blush when you lie, Scorpius. Have you forgotten that I've known you since you were born?" Angelica had me there. I sighed. I wasn't originally going to tell her about Rose, but since she asked…

"Well, there was this one girl…but we're not friends anymore. It's not important," I said, trying to brush it off.

"Who?" Angelica asked.

"Rose Weasley," I mumbled.

"Oh, I know her! She just came into the shop with her friends today! She seems like a sweet girl. So, what happened between you two? Dad must've had a fit when he found out," she said.

"First of all, Mum and Dad don't know about this, so don't say anything to them. Second, did you just say that you worked for the _Weasleys_?" I asked, surprised.

"Yes, I do work at Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. It was the only place that would hire me. They're so nice there- from what Mum and Dad said about them, you would think that they were the meanest people around! I figured that working for them was a small infraction compared to all the rest of the damage I did to our parent's reputation," she explained. I laughed. I had forgotten how funny Angelica could be sometimes.

"Rose was nice, but she didn't understand that our friendship couldn't last forever," I explained. Gradually, I told Angelica all about what had occurred between Rose and I during our time at Hogwarts. I talked about how I first saw her that day on the train- how she was nothing like I thought she would be. Then, I told Angelica about that time that she told me we were falling in love- how I was confused and scared at such a prospect. I discussed playing Quidditch with her, how I hated to lob a bludger her way when it was obvious that she was one of the better players that Gryffindor had. Finally, it came time for me to tell Angelica about what happened between Rose and I right before school ended last year. As I finished my take on the incident, Angelica began to look angry.

"And so then I finally told her that I never wanted to see her again. That girl needed to grow up!" I finished.

"You bloody _idiot_!" Angelica shouted. I was confused. I didn't know what I had said to make her that upset.

"What did I do?" I asked.

"What did you _do_? Scorpius, I can't believe you! Don't you see? You're acting just like Dad always did. You only care about your reputation and nothing else!" she yelled.

"That's not true!" I protested.

"Oh, I think it is. You told me that you liked being with Rose, that she was so different from everyone else. Well, if you really liked her so much, then why did you go and say all those nasty things to her?" In fact, I had been wondering that same thing myself, but I figured that what I did to Rose was for the best.

"Because…because I didn't want everyone to know that I was good friends with a _Weasley_! Rose's father sent her a Howler after he found out- can you imagine what Dad would do to me?"

"So you ended a friendship that was going well all because of the girl's last name? That sounds pretty lame to me, Scorpius. Tell me- do you miss spending time with her?" Of course I missed her. I missed talking about our lives together in that classroom. I missed looking forward to that one day of the week that we had to ourselves. And she probably would be able to help me a lot with my Arthimancy homework if we were still friends- she was at the top of the class.

"Well, I guess I miss her a _bit_," I admitted, knowing that Angelica would be able to tell if I lied. "But even if I do, there's not much I can do about it now, is there? I basically burned all of our bridges when I yelled at her last year."

"You could apologize to her," she suggested.

"Yeah, like that would work. The last thing I want to do is apologize to her. I'd sound like an idiot, and there's no chance in hell that she'd accept it, either, after what I said to her."

"Scorpius, the Weasleys are some of the nicest people I've met. I'm sure Rose would accept your apology."

"I guess, but I don't _need_ to apologize to her. I'm having a good time at Hogwarts as it is- I don't need her complicating things."

"Well, I guess it's up to you, then," Angelica said. "But coming from the viewpoint of another girl, it would probably make Rose incredibly happy if you apologized. Trust me. If you miss her that much, then I bet she probably misses you to." Angelica looked at the clock hanging on the wall of the Three Broomsticks.

"Oh- look at the time! My break's almost over. Think about what I said, Scorpius. Bye!" As Angelica left our table, it was clear that I had a lot of things to think about. Maybe my life wasn't as ok as I thought it was.

A/N: Coming Up: An apology! And…stuff that I haven't figured out yet!


	12. So Talk to Me

Chapter 12: So Talk to Me

A/N: Sorry that it's been so LONG between chapters! I've been so busy with musicals and college searching that I've neglected this fanfic a bit. But I'm happy to say that I'm back and regular updates should be happening more often. Speaking of college searching, I decided that I will be attending Boston University this fall, majoring in English. I don't know if all of you care about that, but whatever. Thanks to everyone who's waited for this story to be updated. Thanks especially to maraudergirl02, Pottermaniac666, hondagirl, squintsquad02, AsanteSanaSquashBanana, aussiesheila47, Not that emo thing again, QuickQuotesQuill87, and I-Heart-Werewolves for reviewing the last chapter! Please READ AND REVIEW!

Chapter 12: So Talk to Me

It was a lazy Saturday afternoon. All of my homework was done, so I didn't have much to do. After a grueling Quidditch practice on Friday, I was in no mood to do anything that required a lot of physical activity. Guy was mad at us at practice because of the "pitiful" way that we had lost to Slytherin in our last match. Given how mad he was, none of us mentioned that the real reason that we lost was because he neglected to dodge Scorpius's bludger in time.

Anyway, Nellie and I were bored out of our minds, so we decided to start a game of Gobstones with Lily and Dominique. We would've invited Hugo to play, too, but he was nowhere to be seen. He was probably still fuming about his Charms project. After working very hard on an extensive paper concerning Engorgment Charms, Professor Wilbourn had dismissed it as "amateurish" and barely given him a passing grade on it. For Hugo, who cared more about his academics than I did, this was a huge blow.

As soon as our game started, Hugo barged into the Common Room, obviously still upset.

"Hugo, do you want to play with us? We just started," I offered.

"Of course not. I have better things to do," he stated.

"Like complain about Wilbourn for the millionth time? Come on, have a little fun!" Lily encouraged.

"How can I have fun when the state of this school's educational system is in disarray?" Hugo always used big words and adopted an arrogant tone when he was angry.

"Now, Hugo, I wouldn't call it 'disarray' just because Wilbourn didn't care for your paper," I said.

"My point exactly. This school is an antiquated institution that grades its students by unfair standards!" he exclaimed.

"Well, Wilbourn loved my paper, so I'm not going to complain," Lily boasted.

"And you finished yours…what, the night before it was due? See what I mean? Wilbourn loves Lily, so she gave her a better grade than me, even though my paper was clearly superior!"

"I hear you, Hugo. I don't like Wilbourn either," I mentioned. "But it won't do you any good just complaining about her all day. Why don't you play with us?"

"I already told you! I don't want to play with you! There are much more pressing concerns," Hugo insisted, storming off.

"Ugh! I don't know how you live with him, Rose," Lily commented. "He's not any fun at all!"

"If he only handled his emotions better, he probably wouldn't seem so distant all the time," Nellie mused. "He just needs to talk about how he feels." Lily and I both laughed.

"Um, I don't know what boys you talk to, but the boys I hang around never talk about how they _feel_!" Lily giggled. I nodded in agreement. Boys were mysterious creatures. While they certainly weren't as petty as girls were, they were quite difficult to figure out.

For example, Liam Finnegan, who up until this year had been one of my good friends, suddenly had started acting very strange around me- always blushing and not having much to say. Isabella thinks that he has a crush on me, but I don't think that's what it is. Why any guy would find me attractive is beyond me. Still, practically every boy in my year has gone mad. Even Al, my own cousin, seems to have a thing for Tatiana Thomas. Must be something in the water.

Scorpius hasn't been immune to this peculiar affliction. After I finally put him out of my mind for good, I get passed a note in Charms class. I didn't know it was from him initially- I thought it was just someone asking me the answer to one of the questions we had to do for homework. When I was sure that Wilbourn wasn't looking my way, I slowly unfolded the note. I was surprised by the message inside it, written in an elegant script uncharacteristic of any boy I knew.

_Rose-_

_As soon as you read this, you're probably going to tear it up and throw it away, but I thought I'd give this a shot. _

_I've been thinking a lot about some things I said to you last year, and I'd like to attempt to patch things up, if you're willing, of course. _

_I'll be waiting where we usually meet tomorrow after dinner. I'll understand if you don't care to show up, but I just wanted to let you know._

_- Scorpius_

Blushing, I folded the note up and put it into my pocket. Since then, the paper had become thin and creased as I read it over and over, searching for a meaning. Was Scorpius serious about all this? Or was this a trap- another way to humiliate me and add insult to injury?

I did want to see him again, but on the other hand, my life was going very well. Still, I felt that something was missing that I had last year. I mean, I still did very well in all of my classes, but helping Liam with his Potions homework while he blushed and sweated just wasn't the same as having an insightful discussion with Scorpius. I didn't know what I should do.

"Rose! It's your move!" Dominique shouted in my ear. I must have gotten distracted. As I was about to take my turn, Liam entered the common room, out of breath.

"Liam! What's the matter?" I asked.

"Peeves…," he replied, panting. "He tried to drop a vase on my head…I swear, these things always happen to me." Regaining his composure, he then noticed a pile of trick sweets from Weasley's Wizard Wheezes that Dominique was planning to leave on the Slytherin table at dinner.  
"Mmm, custard cream!" he said hungrily, unwrapping a cleverly disguised Canary Cream. Dominique was trying hard not to burst out laughing.

"Liam! Don't!" I warned. Alas, Liam paid no attention to my urgent shouting and promptly shoved the Canary Cream into his mouth, not knowing what it was. I groaned as Liam suddenly transfigured into a huge canary, much to the enjoyment of everyone in the common room. If it was possible for a bird to blush, Liam definitely was, as everyone in the common room, including me, burst out in laughter. He looked mortified, and I did feel sorry for him, but it was overall a welcome diversion from the more weighty matters that I had to deal with. Like what to do about Scorpius's letter. As my friends laughed and carried on with their frivolous lives, I wrestled with what to do, unable to enjoy myself.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

After dinner, I still hadn't made a decision on whether to discuss things with Scorpius or not. I wondered if he was aware about how much confusion he caused me over this past day or so. And I thought I had succeeded in getting him out of my mind! Well, I was obviously wrong about that. As I finished the apple pie that I had for dessert that night, I craned my neck over the table to try and catch Scorpius's eye. It appeared, though, that he had already left. Sighing, I turned to join Nellie and my friends to walk back to the common room.

"Oh! Rose! You will not _believe_ what happened to me in Muggle Studies today! Noblitt caught me using my Auto-Answer Quill during our test today- I have detention for an hour in her office! Now isn't that the most unfair thing you can imagine? Marie tried to stick up for me, but then she landed in detention too, of course. That woman is so unreasonable, I don't know why she teaches…," Isabella, who suddenly appeared next to me, rudely said. It was then that I made my decision. I didn't want to spend the rest of my evening listening to gossip about detentions and tests. I needed to talk to Scorpius first.

I ducked into the bathroom as Isabella continued to talk everyone's ears off. As I peered into the cracked mirror, I realized that I should have planned for this meeting better. My hair was, as usual, a total mess, although it was definitely better than it was after what Isabella did to it. Plus- what was that on my nose? A pimple the size of England! Great. Rummaging through my bag, I pulled out an old bottle of Ten-Second Pimple Vanisher from my Aunt and Uncle's shop, which was nearly empty by now. Desperate, I squeezed the last few drops from the bottle onto the pimple, but that only succeeded in turning the pimple a bright shade of green, for reasons I could not fathom. As I tried to fix the obvious problems, I became aware of someone's presence behind me.

"Oh, what's Rosie Weasley getting all dolled up for?" Moaning Myrtle asked.

"Shut it, Myrtle. It's not important," I replied.

"Is it because of a _boy_?"

"Why do you want to know?" I snipped. Normally I wasn't so mean, but I was already late for meeting Scorpius.

"Fine then. Don't tell me anything. Nobody cares about stupid, fat, ugly…," I braced myself for another tirade of tears by Myrtle and made my way out of the bathroom.

"You have something in your teeth, dear," Myrtle added before she proceeded to flood the bathroom without leaving me enough time to check myself in the mirror one more time. Sighing, I fished around in my bag for my small compact mirror, using it to spot a large piece of broccoli situated between my two front teeth. After getting it out, I decided that now was as good a time as ever to face Scorpius once and for all.

As I made my way to the classroom where we normally met, feelings of nervousness rippled through my body. My stomach felt funny and I started shaking. All of this felt strange to me- I had always been fine with meeting Scorpius before. Unlike most girls, who were reduced to a puddle of goo while talking to a boy, I remained immune to this peculiar affliction whenever I conversed with Scorpius. For some reason- probably because we had been friends for so long- I was able to talk to him just as easily as I was able to talk to Nellie or Al.

Today, however, this ability seemed to be disappearing as I opened the door to the classroom to see Scorpius sitting at one of the desks. Neither one of us said a word for the first couple minutes- it seemed like we didn't have any idea of what to say to each other. Finally, I broke the silence, not wanting to spend our entire time like this.

"So…talk to me," I said, still nervous.

"Rose, I…I wanted to apologize for what I did to you last year. I've been thinking about it, and…" Scorpius paused, searching my face for a reaction. I tried my best to remain stoic and calm on the outside, even though I had no idea where this was going.

"And I wanted you to know that I realize now that yelling at you like that was incredibly stupid of me, really. I don't even know why I did it, even…it was certainly a very rash decision on my part." 'Rash decision' my bum. I knew that Scorpius just wanted to pretend like that whole incident didn't happen, but I wasn't going to let him off that easily.

"Oh, I know why you did it," I answered. "You were afraid of what your parents would say if you were socializing with a Weasley."

"Well, that too…not that _I_ think that's a problem, it's just…my family and friends think otherwise." Both of us were silent again after this, waiting for the other one to say something. Scorpius spoke up again.

"So, is it cool between us now?" he asked, falsely thinking that his brief apology would fix everything. While I was happy that he had finally realized what a jerk he had been to me, I wasn't stupid. I knew that if we were to remain friends, some ground rules had to be made.

"Nice try. I accept your apology, but it probably won't be 'cool' between us for a while," I said. "You hurt me so much last year, Scorpius- more than you could ever imagine. In fact, you…you broke my heart, Scorpius," I said, blushing. After seeing the look of horror on Scorpius's face, I revised my last statement. "Well, just a _little_. You cracked my heart." Scorpius looked more relieved. "But that doesn't excuse you from how you made me feel. If we're going to be friends again, it has to be different from last time," I stated.

"But what was so bad about last time? We did have some good times together," Scorpius admitted.

"That's true, but I hated never knowing how I stood with you- if I was really your friend, or just the reason you got such good marks on all our exams last year." I had hoped that this wouldn't escalate into a fight, but as soon as I said those words, Scorpius started yelling at me again.

"Of course you're my friend, Rose! And I want to stay friends with you. Oh, Blaine, Blair, Tamika…they're all right, but you…you're different. You don't give a damn about blood or legacies or…last names," he finally said. "I know this sounds really corny, but I can be myself around you, Rose. Please forgive me for what happened last year. I'll do anything." I was dumbstruck by what he admitted. This time, I knew he was serious about his apology.

"Fine- we can still be friends," I said. "But I just want you to promise me one thing."

"What?" Scorpius asked.

"That you won't question our friendship ever again. I'm fine if we end up growing apart- that happens all the time. But what we have is real, Scorpius- and all that crap about our families doesn't need to matter. I want you to understand that."

"Couldn't have said it better myself," Scorpius agreed. "Same time next week?" I nodded, happy that we had finally worked something out.


End file.
